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"Richmond, I mean, that is in the woods of my hometown right there, 15 minutes away," Hamlin said. "And so, yeah, I'm going to have a lot of friends and family out there. So everyone knows that this is my Indy, I guess you could say, as far as Tony's concerned. So we'll see how it turns out. We always seem to run well there."
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In fact, over the past five Richmond races, Hamlin's average finishing position stands at 3.6 -- the best in the Cup series.
Hamlin rolls into Richmond on an upswing, and after a mediocre start to the year, has put together a solid string of finishes that have moved him into the top five in the standings. Hamlin has ripped off four consecutive top-five finishes, including a win at Martinsville and back-to-back third-place finishes at Phoenix and Talladega.
But despite that surge, Hamlin still feels as if he's unnoticed by some media and fans, who focus on his two high-profile teammates, Kyle Busch and Stewart.
"It's just motivation when we don't get the press that I feel like we deserve," Hamlin said. "Yeah, Kyle, he's definitely won a couple of races this year. We've won a race. And the last five races we've been the hottest team. I mean, we've never finished out of the top six.
"I'm fine with taking a back seat to those guys and showing up on the race track," he says.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will show up at the track where he scored his last Cup win, when he took the checkered flag in May 2006. He is now on a 71-race winless streak.
"The last time I won was at Richmond, seems like forever ago, but I try not to think about it," said Earnhardt, who outran Hamlin to the checkered flag that night. "I don't want to be thinking of how long it's been since a win. Knowing we have a shot at it every week and something or another happens can make it frustrating. We couldn't be doing anything different to prepare -- the team and everyone at Hendrick has been working so hard. It will happen."
