Denny Hamlin: Long-Term Changes Needed On No. 11 Team To Be Competitive

Denny Hamlin’s 2011 season has not exactly gone according to plan.

After losing the championship to Jimmie Johnson last year, Hamlin entered the season as the odds-on favorite, but his season got off to a rough start and never fully recovered.

Hamlin has never been a factor in this year’s Chase after three four finishes of 16th or worse, after making it in with one of the two wild card entries.

With the goal of winning another race before the start of the season, Hamlin has a solid shot this weekend at Martinsville, where he has four, adding a victory would “put a band-aid” over the frustrating season they have experienced.

Searching for ways to improve, Hamlin has continually called for changes within the No. 11 team and the Joe Gibbs Racing organization. With four races left in the year, Hamlin understands that process will not happen over night.

Top among Hamlin’s concerns is the process in which JGR are building their race cars.

“That’s going to take a long time and I’m not going to expect things to happen this week, next week,” he said. “I’m not going to get discouraged if I go to Homestead and they say, ‘Alright, well this is half of what you want, this is three-quarters of what you want.’

“I know that when we get to Daytona or the next mile-and-a-half next year, we’re going to have what I want in the cars. Hopefully, it’s going to be the right thing.”

While he admits the process will be lengthy, he indicated he will be getting some of the changes “in the next few weeks” and predicts his performance will show the difference.

“It’s going to take time,” he said. “The things we need to change are looong-term things. They’re not things that we can fix right now.”