DENNY HAMLIN - NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES

Hamlin earned his 17th Cup Series victory at Michigan International Speedway last season and moved the storied No. 11 within one victory of matching the iconic No. 43 with 198 for the most wins of all time in NASCAR’s premier division.

Hamlin set the Cup Series alight in 2010, winning a series-high eight races and putting the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team among the elite in the garage. Winning frequently, and on a wide variety of tracks, Hamlin held the points lead heading into the Chase before ultimately finishing second by the slimmest of margins. Season highlights included a late-race charge at Martinsville that elevated his team to a serious contender after a slow start to the season, two signature wins on the high banks of Texas Motor Speedway helped stamp the team’s authority on the series, and emotional wins at both Pocono Raceway and his home track, Richmond International Raceway. The season was not without its fair share of drama off the track as well as Hamlin fought through a serious knee injury and subsequent surgery during the 36-race schedule.

The 2009 Sprint Cup Series season proved to be a coming of age campaign for Hamlin and the No. 11 team. A leadership role within Joe Gibbs Racing and a desire to turn continued success into a championship saw Hamlin make a late-season charge to lock up a spot in NASCAR’s post-season, but Chase wins at Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway were ultimately negated by on-track problems at Auto Club Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. Hamlin finished the season fifth in the point standings, setting then-career best marks for wins, top-five finishes and total laps led. His impressive victories on various circuits proved Hamlin and his team were well positioned to be the primary challengers to reigning champion Jimmie Johnson moving forward.

The 2008 Sprint Cup season was, by any definition, a season of change. Joe Gibbs Racing made the move to a new manufacturer in Toyota, the Cup Series made the full-time move to the Car of Tomorrow, Hamlin welcomed Kyle Busch as a teammate and the No. 11 team was hoping that change would also come in the form of a series championship effort. Despite making the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in both 2006 and 2007, the onus was on the team to translate regular season success into a charge down the stretch.

The spring race at Richmond International Raceway highlighted both the satisfaction of fully dominating an event and the speed with which that dominance can be undone. Hamlin started the 400-lap event from the pole and led an impressive 381 laps before a cut tire forced him to pit road with only 19 laps to go. A win on a cold, rainy day in Martinsville earned Hamlin his sole Cup triumph of the season and a long-coveted Grandfather clock trophy. As Hamlin marched to his third-consecutive Chase, the team was hoping to avoid the letdown that marked the 2007 edition, but alas, it was not to be.

After a mechanical failure in Dover and a tremendous hit following a cut tire at Talladega, Hamlin was all but eliminated from championship contention and finished the year in eighth place.

The 2007 season built on a wildly successful 2006 rookie campaign and helped solidify Hamlin and the No. 11 team’s status as a perennial championship contender. Hamlin quickly allayed fears that he would fall victim to the dreaded “sophomore slump” by kicking off the season with a string of solid results that catapulted him into the top-five in points.

Hamlin’s lone 2007 win came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. On several occasions in 2007, dominating performances by Hamlin and the team were nullified by pit road mishaps, mechanical problems or penalties, yet the No. 11 team still maintained championship aspirations and a place near the top of the standings. Hamlin posted 12 top-five finishes and 18 top-10 results throughout the year, but ultimately settled for 12th place in the final standings.

In 2006, Hamlin burst onto the scene with a win in the prestigious Budweiser Shootout exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway, and carried that early momentum into one of the most successful rookie campaigns in NASCAR history.

On his way to becoming the first – and still only – rookie to earn a spot in the Chase for the championship, Hamlin posted his first career Cup Series victory in dominating style at Pocono Raceway. He captured three pole awards, finished third in the final point standings and earned 2006 “Rookie of the Year” honors.

Hamlin’s ascension to the highest levels of NASCAR came through a combination of skill, perseverance, a little bit of luck and a knack for delivering strong performances when given the opportunity. Each of Hamlin’s “debuts” has come with caveats of additional opportunities (in the form of more races or permanent employment) should he meet or beat expectations, and he has absolutely shone in those instances. In his first NASCAR Truck Series race, Hamlin drove the Gibbs Performance Chevrolet to a 10th place finish at Indianapolis Raceway Park on August 6, 2004. Three months later, making his debut in the Busch (now Nationwide) Series at Darlington Raceway, he recorded an eight-place finish for JGR.

With Hamlin on his way to a fifth-place finish in the standings during his rookie Busch Series campaign, he was offered the unexpected opportunity to run the No. 11 Chevrolet at the end of the 2005 Cup Series season. Hamlin wasted no time in displaying his talent, posting three top-10 finishes in seven starts and winning the pole in Phoenix. His performances over the seven races he ran at the end of 2005 made him an easy choice to fill the seat of the No. 11 car for 2006.

In addition to his success at the Cup level, Hamlin has put together an impressive resume in the Nationwide Series. He made his debut in 2004 and spent nearly three full seasons behind the wheel of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet, before making the transition to Toyotas for JGR, Braun Racing and CJM beginning in 2008. In 128 total starts, Hamlin has racked up 11 wins and 15 poles.

Hamlin now finds himself at the highest level of NASCAR, but he has been winning races since the age of seven when he began his career racing karts in the Junior Sportsman League. From the kart tracks of Virginia to the Sprint Cup Series, Hamlin has proved he can succeed at any level.

In 2000, he was named Rookie of the Year at Southside Speedway in Richmond, Virginia, posting 11 top-five finishes that year. Just three years later, Hamlin celebrated his finest season in the Late Model ranks, recording 25 wins, 30 poles and 33 top-five finishes.

In 1997, at age 16, Hamlin hit the track for his first season driving a Mini Stock car. The year was a resounding success as Hamlin became the youngest driver to win the NASCAR Mini Stock track championship at Langley Speedway in his home state of Virginia, and was named the 1997 NASCAR Mini Stock Rookie of the Year.  He still holds the NASCAR Mini Stock record at Langley with a lap time of 18.025 seconds.

Hamlin was dominating in the Junior Restricted League at age 12, earning the titles Amelia Motor Raceway track champion (junior restricted), Virginia Dirt Karting Association State Champion (Junior Champ) and World Karting Association Virginia Dirt Series State Champion (Junior Champ). He finished his Kart career at age 15 with 127 feature wins and five championships in three classes.

Away from the track, Hamlin stays active - whether playing golf, basketball or working out - and spending time with friends. He remains a committed fan of Virginia Tech and the Washington Redskins, and can be found courtside for Charlotte Bobcats home games.

Joe Gibbs Racing
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one of the premier organizations in NASCAR, currently fielding three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, two NASCAR Nationwide Series teams and a driver development program that includes two full-time NASCAR East Series teams. Its driver lineup consists of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series; Busch, Hamlin, Logano, Brad Coleman and Matt DiBenedetto in the NASCAR Nationwide Series; Max Gresham and Brett Moffitt in the NASCAR East Series; and Darrell Wallace Jr., in its driver development program. Based in Huntersville, N.C., and owned by Joe Gibbs – a three-time Super Bowl winner as head coach of the NFL’s Washington Redskins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame – JGR has competed in NASCAR since 1992, winning three Cup Series championship, two Nationwide Series championships and more than 100 NASCAR races, including three Brickyard 400s and the 1993 Daytona 500.

Jason Ratcliff: Crew Chief, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry
Jason Ratcliff is in his sixth year as crew chief of the No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota team for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

One of the most respected crew chiefs in the garage, Ratcliff enters the 2010 season after overseeing one of the most successful seasons in NASCAR’s 62-year history.

In 2009, Ratcliff called the shots for Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry for JGR, and the duo won its first NASCAR title of any kind by defeating runner-up Carl Edwards by 210 points in the season-ending standings.

Their total of 5,682 points scored in 2009 were the most ever by a Nationwide Series champion, as were the 2,698 laps Busch led throughout the season. Busch scored nine wins – four more than any other driver – while he finished second 11 times for a single-season Nationwide Series record. Busch’s 25 top-five finishes were the most since Jeff Green scored 25 top-fives in a 32-race season in 2000.

Busch failed to lead a lap in only three races and led more than 50 percent of the laps in a race an incredible 12 times. The points race was never really in doubt as he led the standings after 30 of the 35 events, including the last 29 weeks of the season.

The results of 2009 couldn’t have made Jim Sexton, (president and CEO of Z-Line Designs) and his wife, Monica, any happier given that of the 14 times Z-Line was primary sponsor on Busch’s No. 18 Toyota, the car went to victory lane five times – including in the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the team clinched the championship.

“It was incredible,” Ratcliff said. “When you stop and think about it, it becomes a little bit emotional. To think about what we were able to do, the blessings that we were blessed with all season long – Kyle and this whole team, what we were able to accomplish as a group – it’s just awesome to be able to put those goals up there in front of us and go out there and achieve them. We did everything we set out to do, and then even more than we expected. I don’t know if we can ever have another season like 2009, but we’re going to try. He (Busch) is incredible. He deserves every record he broke and his name deserves to be by it. We’re just glad that we could be a part of it. This group of guys, I’ve been working with this group for more than five years now and they just never quit. They just keep on, keep on, keep on.”

Ratcliff’s journey to being a championship crew chief began with his birth on Dec. 8, 1967, in Sumter, S.C., about an hour east of the state capitol of Columbia. He moved no less than six times as a child before settling in Westlake, La.

While in Westlake, he began his racing career working on mini-Sprint cars.

“I used to go the racetrack with the father of a friend of mine,” said Ratcliff, who graduated from Westlake High School in 1985. “I’d look to help anybody with a racecar because I couldn’t afford one.”

After graduation, Ratcliff moved to Texas, where he spent much of the next nine years working on Sprint cars around the Lone Star State.

His professional racing breakthrough came in 1995, when he joined Sadler Racing in Nashville, Tenn., as a mechanic and rear tire changer for drivers Chuck Bown and Gary Bradberry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. After two years with Sadler Racing, Ratcliff left the team and spent the 1997-1998 seasons at LAR Motorsports, headquartered in Columbia, Tenn., where he was chief mechanic for Casey Atwood and Jeff Purvis over a two-year span.

Ratcliff’s first year as a NASCAR crew chief came at Brewco Motorsports in 1999, when a young Atwood was a Nationwide Series rookie. Ratcliff and Atwood were together at Brewco for two years before Atwood left for a Cup Series ride at Evernham Motorsports (now Richard Petty Motorsports) and was replaced at Brewco by Jamie McMurray for the 2001 and 2002 seasons.

“Casey was just 18 and I was a rookie crew chief, so that first year we both got a lot of experience learning together on the job,” Ratcliff said. “That lasted a couple of years with Casey, and then we started all over again with Jamie. I’m proud to say we won a couple of times with Casey and a couple of times with Jamie, which is quite an accomplishment with an independent Nationwide Series team.”

The 2003 and 2004 seasons at Brewco gave Ratcliff the chance to work with veteran Nationwide Series driver David Green, and the crew chief-driver tandem hit the ground running from the opening race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in 2003. They went on to win three races, score 11 top-fives, 21 top-10s and two pole positions en route to second place in the season-ending driver championship, a mere 14 points behind title-winner Brian Vickers.

Working with Green, Ratcliff showed his mettle and, again, showed the NASCAR community that it was, indeed, possible for a non-Cup-affiliated Nationwide Series team to compete at a championship level week in and week out.

Before arriving at JGR prior to the 2005 season, Ratcliff had netted seven wins and seven pole positions with his combination rookie and veteran driver lineup. That set the stage for his new life at an established NASCAR Cup-affiliated Nationwide Series operation, which promised huge dividends.

Ratcliff enjoyed a solid run with former JGR driver J.J. Yeley in 2005 and 2006 as they collaborated on 13 top-five and 34 top-10 finishes in those two seasons on NASCAR’s junior circuit.

In 2007, Ratcliff worked with the trio of Aric Almirola, Brad Coleman and Kevin Conway as they shared the No. 18 car. Collectively, they scored two poles, four top-fives and five top-10s.

Busch and Denny Hamlin split time in the No. 18 Toyotas in 2008, with Busch scoring four wins and Hamlin one win with Ratcliff sitting on top of the pit box.

Ratcliff resides in Huntersville, N.C., with his wife Christi and children Cade and Dakota. He enjoys working on cars, golfing and boating.