Hamlin showing maturity

He assumes new role with team

By Julian Benbow, Globe Staff  |  June 28, 2009

LOUDON, N.H. - The label that lingered on Denny Hamlin - even after three years behind the wheel of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing - was that he was immature.

The most damaging evidence against him was an incident at Michigan International Speedway last summer, when, six laps from the finish, his engine blew and his temper followed. Still steaming over a 39th-place finish, Hamlin ripped his team in a television interview for making “stupid’’ decisions and said they didn’t deserve to be in the Chase for the Cup.

Mending those fences took weeks. What his team needed from Hamlin was growth. With the departure of veteran leader Tony Stewart, who left to become a driver/owner, that need only grew larger. Hamlin, 28, became the oldest of JGR’s remaining drivers and the de facto veteran.

By all accounts, he has taken to the role, rebuilding bridges with teammates, taking young talent Joey Logano of Middletown, Conn., under his wing, and often sounding like the team’s spokesman.

Sitting seventh in points and looking for his second win in three years at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Hamlin said, “I’m a little more in tune overall with how Joe Gibbs Racing has run now than what I was over the years past. That’s the kind of role I felt like I needed to take.’’

Without Stewart, Hamlin acknowledged, the organization feels slightly different.

“There’s a little bit of a void there, but I think it’s been filled by the three of us,’’ said Hamlin, a winner here in 2007. “There’s no one person I think that’s really taken a certain lead role for the team, but I think we’ve all jointly tried to make our team better.

“Joey has his role, I have my role, and Kyle [Busch] has his, but we each know that we can’t be shy about telling the team what needs to be done. Tony kind of did that before and it’s just on all of us to do it now.’’

In a race that included four cautions, three crashes, 18 lead changes, and a chaotic final lap, Donnie Lia seemed as much a survivor as he did the winner of the Whelen Modified Tour’s New England 100.

Battling with Todd Szegedy, Ronnie Silk, and points leader Ted Christopher going into the final turn, Lia held his line and darted through a crash between Szegedy and Christopher to pick up his 12th career win.

Still, Lia was one of several drivers fed up with overaggressive tactics.

In the last turn alone, he withstood Silk clipping him from behind and another car - presumed to be Christopher’s - “dive-bombing’’ his left front tire with the two bars along the side of the car.

“A few years ago, people tried to set people up to pass them,’’ Lia said. “Now it’s like you just dive-bomb, go right up the racetrack and let the nerf bar do its job, we need to get away from that, because somebody’s going to get hurt.

“I had enough of it, and I said, ‘You know what, I’m keeping my footing.’ Because how many times can you just roll out of it and just let somebody just take the spot? It’s like a game of chicken, and that’s just not racing.’’

Eddie Flemke Jr. was able to slip past the trouble and finish second, choosing to watch the cars push and shove in front of him rather than join in.

“It was a typical Loudon finish,’’ Flemke said. “It was pretty intense those last few laps. I chose to just sit back and watch it happen, because it wasn’t good. Either you get up there and you push with them or you step back, and this time I stepped back and it paid off.’’