Hamlin all positive about Toyota, COT, 'new' JGR

LAS VEGAS -- Despite winning a race with the Car of Tomorrow in its inaugural 2007 season, Denny Hamlin could have hardly been called an ardent supporter of NASCAR's latest chassis design.

But NASCAR's switch to the COT full time this season, Joe Gibbs Racing's offseason switch to Toyota and more test time have been winning him over. It didn't hurt that Hamlin's Camry was the fastest car among 68 that hit the track Monday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the second round of Preseason Thunder.

"So far, [I've] been pretty impressed with both everything from our side and really, NASCAR's side, putting these cars on this racetrack," Hamlin said. "It seems to be going pretty well [and it] seems like every time we go to a big track with these things, I'm definitely more impressed with how they drive."

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After leading the session with an average speed of 178.265 mph, Hamlin said he had no desire to go back to the previous cars.

"There's not really anything [about the COT] that makes me wish we were still driving the old cars, other than it's going to be difficult to pass," Hamlin said. "It was getting to that point, really, with the old cars. It was becoming very difficult to pass [so] really, you're going to have some of the same challenges with this car that you did with the previous car.

"So there's really nothing. I think our speeds were getting a little bit too high with the old cars. These obviously have slowed down a little bit over that. I'm pretty pleased with everything that NASCAR has decided to do as far as safety, performance-wise with these cars. I'm very impressed with it."

Hamlin said his concerns about the switch were not only nil, but that he felt his team would be better off in Toyota's camp.

"We definitely didn't think going into this year that we were going to have growing pains by switching manufacturers," Hamlin said. "Had we had the old car where we really don't know the aero advantages, yeah, we definitely would have been a little bit more concerned.

"But we know we've got basically the same body as what we had last year. All we're dealing with is different horsepower. Really there's going to be no transition for us -- hopefully [we'll] be as competitive, if not more competitive in 2008.

"The way it's looking, we're going to be more competitive than what we were last year."

Better team communication is part of that plan. New Gibbs team member Kyle Busch has been fast in every aspect of testing so far -- both Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series -- and Hamlin, in a lighthearted moment, said he could see the difference.

It was really noticeable in the afternoon session, when Busch paced the 82 cars that ran with an average speed of 183.580 mph. Stewart had the second- and third-best speeds, overall, and Busch's second car was sixth. Hamlin, meanwhile, fell to 24th.

"It's been good so far," Hamlin said. "We've definitely been able to use a lot of notes from the 18 [Busch's team] -- a lot more than what the teams have in probably the last three or four years."

For the last two seasons J.J. Yeley has driven the 18, which before that was driven by Bobby Labonte. Hamlin raced with Labonte for seven races in 2005, and then was Yeley's teammate the past two years.

"Really, it's good," Hamlin said. "It definitely seems like we already have a little bit more communication with Kyle than Tony [Stewart], but he showed up late ... I don't know. I think it's going to be good.

"I think we really never have had a three-car united team at Joe Gibbs Racing. It's always been -- our cars have been spread out. We've kind of had one up front at times, one in the middle [and] one in the back. It kind of alternates which car that is.

"Really I think this year is going to be the first time you see the three-car team of Joe Gibbs Racing."