NASCAR Brickyard 400: Denny Hamlin pole win has him thinking Victory Lane

An advantage of two-tenths of a second isn’t much to be confident about, but it has Denny Hamlin smiling heading into today’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That’s how much quicker – and then some – pole sitter Hamlin was over the rest of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field in Saturday’s qualifying session. He was more than a half of a second quicker than Indy’s all-time-best driver, Jeff Gordon, who starts ninth today. 

Hamlin went Ruthian with his prognosis for the 19th-annual race.

 “It’s hard to point to the outfield right now, but we’ve got the bat halfway raised,” he said. 

After Babe Ruth gestured toward the fence in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, he delivered a home run on the next pitch. 

That might be Hamlin today after he turned a lap of 49.244 seconds Saturday, a speed of 182.763 mph. Carl Edwards was second at 181.984.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120728/SPORTS0109/120728028/NASCAR-Brickyard-400-Denny-Hamlin-s-pole-win-has-him-thinking-Victory-Lane?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Indianapolis Sports