Hamlin fired up for tuneup

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Denny Hamlin knows how much it meant to win the Budweiser Shootout two years ago as a rookie for Joe Gibbs Racing.

"It was very meaningful to me," said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, who will start 12th tonight at Daytona International Speedway in the 23-car field of Bud Pole Award winners from the 2007 season and past Shootout winners. "I definitely think that was my biggest win as a [Sprint] Cup Series driver, or any accomplishment I've had during the course of my career.

"That's what's going to stick in my mind for years to come and it's great because it got me in the Shootout from now on," said the 27-year-old Hamlin, who recorded one pole victory last season, at Martinsville, Va., where he finished third. "I don't have to have the pressure of winning a pole every year."

Many drivers are using the 70-lap race as a tuneup for tomorrow's pole qualifications, Thursday's Gatorade Duels, and, more important, the 50th Daytona 500 Feb. 17. But Hamlin, who posted the fastest lap (182.523 miles per hour) during a Jan. 31 test session at California Speedway, and his teammates no doubt will use the Shootout as a way to get a better handle on their Camrys under race conditions at Daytona's high-banked and high-speed 2 1/2-mile trioval.

Toyotas were dominant in yesterday's Shootout practice, with Tony Stewart setting the pace in his No. 20 Home Depot car with a fast lap of 191.290 m.p.h. Hamlin was third fastest (191.079) and Dave Blaney fourth fastest (190.178).

"I think everyone knows how important the Shootout is for practice for the Daytona 500," Hamlin said. "It's going to be even more important for us [at Gibbs Racing], being new with the Toyota and working with a new teammate [Kyle Busch], as well as this car [formerly known as the Car of Tomorrow] being on this racetrack for the first time."

Turning the page

Owner/driver Michael Waltrip reflected this week on the difficulties he endured last season when his fledgling team was hit with several NASCAR sanctions after an unapproved fuel additive was detected in post-qualifying inspection of his No. 55 NAPA Toyota for the Daytona 500.

His qualifying attempt nullified, Waltrip was forced to race his way into the 43-car field, finishing eighth in the first heat of the Gatorade Duel.

"It was a hard year and a lot of things contributed to the difficulty of it," said Waltrip, who went on to post DNQs (did not qualify) in the next 11 races and 14 of the first 17 Cup events. "But mainly there is just so much invested in the team, financially and emotionally. To see it almost crumble and all go bad in a hurry was difficult."

One memory continued to haunt Waltrip. "I never will forget a year ago this coming Sunday when I woke up and I was so proud of our cars because we had had a pretty decent day in Saturday's practice, and we were poised to make our first Daytona 500 [with Toyota]," Waltrip said. "I even colored my hair, I took a shower, I used Just for Men, shaved, and I looked as good as I could."

But no amount of personal grooming could remove the expression Waltrip wore when he was informed of his team's infractions. "I will never forget getting that phone call saying that we had something in our gas tank," Waltrip recalled. "I said, 'There must be a mistake, there must be a reason.' Every day that went by it would become clear that there was a reason why this happened and we did not deliberately do it.

"All that was very, very trying. That was a low point. But Thursday, when I got in a car that I had not been in and worked my way to the front to make the Daytona 500, which put all that behind me, I was like, 'I told you all that I didn't have to do anything like that.' "

That triumph, however, was trumped by all the DNQs. "The low point was missing those races," he said. "Just week after week of trying and failing, trying and failing, and seeing my other cars [the No. 00 driven by David Reutimann and the No. 44 driven by Dale Jarrett] running poorly - that was the lowest point.

"The only thing that really got me through it was a couple of trips to Atlanta to tell NAPA, 'What do you want me to do?' " Waltrip said. "They said, 'We think you can do it and this is just part of our trip to get to where we're going.' If it weren't for them, I guess we would have gone out of business."

Crash course

Jimmie Johnson, the two-time defending Sprint Cup champion, and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon were forced to relegate their Shootout cars to the scrap heap after Johnson's No. 48 Lowe's Chevy and Gordon's No. 24 DuPont Chevy were involved in an eight-car crash on the backstretch during last night's final practice session.

"That car is done," said Johnson, whose vehicle sustained heavy front-end damage after it got collected by Ryan Newman's No. 12 Dodge, which was sent spinning after it was tapped from behind by Clint Bowyer's No. 07 Chevy. "I'm sure we have a great plan. We're never in a bad situation. I'm sure we have another great racecar ready to go."

Like Johnson, Gordon was forced to summon a backup from Charlotte, N.C., to prevent him from having to use his Daytona 500 car in the Shootout.

"I just know the DuPont Chevrolet is junk and we don't have a backup and we'll have to ship one here in the morning," Gordon said. "I'm not worried about where I'm starting in the Shootout [22d in the 23-car field]. We've still got a lot of good ones back at the shop. I was saying it was going to be exciting and, hopefully, there'll be a lot more excitement to come."

Gordon's comments proved prescient when Stewart and Kurt Busch tangled toward the end of the practice session. According to eyewitnesses Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle, Busch had attempted to block Stewart on the backstretch, which prompted Stewart to tap Busch from behind.

Busch's Dodge took a hard right into the wall. Stewart took evasive maneuvers and drove into Hamlin, causing extensive right-side damage to his teammate. Busch came steaming up from behind on the frontstretch and thrice sideswiped Stewart as both cars entered pit road.

The session was red-flagged and both drivers were summoned to the NASCAR hauler to explain their actions.

Daytona 500
What: NASCAR's season-opening race
When: Sunday, Feb. 17
Where: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.
TV: Ch. 25, 2 p.m.

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com