FONTANA, Calif. - The last time Denny Hamlin drove at Auto Club Speedway, California’s venerable 2-mile oval, he had to be airlifted from the track.
The wreck was on his mind the first time he drove into that fateful third turn again this weekend in preparation for today’s Auto Club 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup event.
“The next time I came around, it was an afterthought,” Hamlin said. “And I haven’t thought about it since.”
That last lap crash with bitter rival Joey Logano cost both men a chance to win at Fontana last March, and Kyle Busch slipped between them for NASCAR’s most spectacular finish of last season.
“It was a bad weekend for us, for sure, and obviously affected the rest of our season and beyond,” said Hamlin, who broke a vertebra when he smashed into the inside wall. “But you’ve got to move on and you’ve got to deal with the adversity and be stronger from it, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Hamlin and Logano are among several cars to watch as NASCAR’s new season gets into gear at one of the drivers’ favorite tracks today, but there’s probably no driver who wants a win at Fontana more than Hamlin.
“My engineer always asks me to send three tracks where I would most like to win, and maybe they will spend a little bit more extra effort on that particular race track,” said Hamlin, who starts 13th. “For me, California is No. 1 because we never made it to the finish last year. We had a great shot to win it, but we never made it. It would feel like we do have to get some redemption, and it would make a great story.”
Hamlin still hasn’t recaptured top form after the crash, which cost him nearly five full races and left him in back pain for months.
“Physically, I feel really good,” Hamlin said. “The best I’ve felt back-wise in a really long time - I mean years and years. I’m better than I was before the wreck, for sure.”
Fontana added 1,000 feet of SAFER barriers after last year’s wreck, but the drivers don’t want changes to the pavement, which had become one of the roughest on the Sprint Cup circuit. It’s wide enough for aggressive passing and unpredictable enough for crazy finishes, and the worn out grooves reward the best drivers.
“It puts it more in the drivers’ hands, and I think that’s good,” Carl Edwards said.
The Fontana asphalt hasn’t been altered much in 17 years, and that benign neglect has turned this 2-mile oval into one of the NASCAR circuit’s favorite tracks for racers.
“You could poll, and probably 42 out of 43 drivers would say, ‘Please do not change an old, broken-up racetrack,’ ” Hamlin said.
TODAY’S LINEUP
Auto Club 400 After Friday qualifying; race today At Auto Club Speedway Fontana, Calif.
Lap length: 2 miles (Car number in parentheses)
(20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 187.315 mph
(2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 187.105
(48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 186.935
(4) Kevin Harvick, Chevy, 186.901
(15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 186.461
(24) Jeff Gordon, Chevy, 186.384
(22) Joey Logano, Ford, 186.273
(9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 186.013
(99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 185.878
(14) Tony Stewart, Chevy, 185.792
(42) Kyle Larson, Chevy, 185.773
(78) Martin Truex Jr., Chevy, 185.725
(11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 185.323
(18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 185.314
(88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevy, 185.290
(31) Ryan Newman, Chevy, 185.209
(41) Kurt Busch, Chevy, 185.166
(47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevy, 184.715
(55) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 184.521
(3) Austin Dillon, Chevy, 183.960
(43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 183.955
(17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 183.861
(7) Michael Annett, Chevy, 183.491
(16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 185.095
(1) Jamie McMurray, Chevy, 184.525
(5) Kasey Kahne, Chevy, 184.322
(10) Danica Patrick, Chevy, 184.299
(51) Justin Allgaier, Chevy, 183.983
(38) David Gilliland, Ford, 183.922
(27) Matt Crafton, Chevy, 183.641
(13) Casey Mears, Chevy, 183.580
(30) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 182.918
(35) David Reutimann, Ford, 182.219
(26) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 181.525
(32) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 181.507
(36) Reed Sorenson, Chevy, 181.365
(33) Brian Scott, Chevy, owner points
(98) Josh Wise, Chevy, owner points
(83) Ryan Truex, Toyota, owner points
(23) Alex Bowman, Toyota, owner points
(34) David Ragan, Ford, owner points
(66) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, owner points
(40) Landon Cassill, Chevy, owner points
Sports, Pages 25 on 03/23/2014