Denny Hamlin’s hot start to the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season is turning into a full-fledged firestorm. Hamlin took another impressive step in his pursuit of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship on Saturday night at Darlington, and not even a bum knee or the track supposedly too tough to tame could stop him.
After winning the Nationwide race on Friday, Hamlin won his third Sprint Cup title in six races -- and the second in four starts following early-season ACL surgery -- while holding off Jamie McMurray to win the Showtime Southern 500 for his first career victory at Darlington Raceway.
Hamlin’s third victory of 2010 gave Raybestos brand brakes, a member of the Affinia Group family of brands, their fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of the season. With victories coming at Martinsville, Texas and Darlington -- an undeniably diversified group of racetracks -- Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team are displaying the type of consistency needed to compete for NASCAR championships.
“We’re winning at all kinds of different racetracks,” says Hamlin. “At the beginning, it seemed to be pretty much short tracks, but now we’re winning at various types of tracks and that’s very encouraging.”
Once again, Hamlin relied on his Raybestos brand brakes to separate from the field in a race where cars were experiencing braking problems.
“From about lap 5 the brakes were getting pretty orange into the corner,” says Mike Ford, crew chief for Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota. “Normally I’d say something, but I knew our car was tight and that he was using the brakes hard, but he never complained once about fade or anything. Our Raybestos brakes worked very well once again tonight.”
The Raybestos Sprint Cup braking system that Hamlin utilized at Darlington to continue his winning ways features ultra-lightweight aluminum alloy six-piston calipers -- the stiffest and lightest calipers available in all of NASCAR. The innovative calipers were developed using Raybestos technology partner Alcon’s state of the art “optimized design” process, and include an asymmetric body design and advanced between-piston and crossover cooling features. The new Raybestos Short Track brake package also provides for the largest brake pad volume (surface area) and largest rotor (13.15-inch outside diameter, and 1.65 inches thick) available in NASCAR.
For more information on the Raybestos Sprint Cup braking system, or for questions on any Raybestos brand brake or chassis products, visit www.raybestos.com.
