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Well, he didn’t say that to be nice to the camera, the sponsor, or to suck up to Nascar. That’s how it is. Good on him.

Well I was just pointing out that Smoke has picked up three brownie points in this thread and we have 600 posts to go....

Hamlin is on a roll... # # Hamlin parked in 1st Talladega practice: NASCAR cracked down on bump-drafting in the first Nextel Cup practice Friday at Talladega Superspeedway, and #11-Denny Hamlin was the first culprit. Hamlin was parked late in the session, though he said his Joe Gibbs Racing was finished in that practice anyway. "They made a general warning right at the beginning to everyone to stop using the front bumpers, and after that I got hit probably 20 to 30 times," Hamlin said. "So I figured I'd just keep doing what I was doing. Right there at the end, I guess I was a little excessive."

Hamlin was curious as to why he and Gibbs teammates Tony Stewart and J.J. Yeley were singled out. "They said Gibbs cars in specific, they had an eye out on," Hamlin said. "I wonder what makes us different than anyone else, other than we were the first three cars in line. We were working well together, and when I say working well together, we were pushing each other well. But they said they didn't want any contact, and we broke that rule. So we're going sit have to sit out for a while." NASCAR officials said they parked Hamlin for refusing to heed a NASCAR directive.

"Our concern is whenever you've got restrictor-plate racing and cars as closely matched as they are, you're always going to have occasions of front bumpers being in contact with rear bumpers. It's a product of the draft," NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Director John Darby said. "That being said, there's also a point where it's forced aggressiveness and that's what we don't want to have happen."

Darby said Hamlin wasn't the only driver who was warned, but he was the most aggressive. Hamlin said his #11 team would not participate in Friday's second [Happy Hour and final] practice.(SceneDaily.com)(10-5-2007)