CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Denny Hamlin had three wins at this point lastseason and clearly was the strongest challenger to Jimmie Johnson'sNASCAR Sprint Cup title.
Joey Logano was inconsistent, but showing enough improvement thateveryone believed he was headed toward Victory Lane.
When the season ended, Hamlin was an eight-time winner who hadnearly ended Johnson's five-year reign and Logano was predicted tobecome a legitimate contender for the Chase for the Sprint Cupchampionship.
Neither is driving up to expectations.
Nobody, though, is panicking.
"There's no doubt we'll be in the Chase," said Hamlin, who goesto Kansas Speedway for Sunday's STP 400 inside the top 12 for thefirst time since the third week of the season.
"It's just never giving up, man," said Logano, who grabbed aseason-best third-place Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Their disappointing starts to the season have thrust the driversinto the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
An unconfirmed report last month said Joe Gibbs Racing was on theverge of swapping Logano crew chief Greg Zipadelli with Hamlin crewchief Mike Ford, and even though team president J.D. Gibbs stronglydenied that had ever been discussed, the whispers have lingered.
It didn't matter that Hamlin responded with finishes of secondand sixth immediately after the rumor surfaced, as soon as he loggeda 16th at Dover - a track that has consistently caused him fits andwhere his average finish is 20.9 - people again began clamoring forFord's head.
It didn't help, either, when Logano and Zipadelli bickered overtheir in-car radio the next week after Logano failed to race his wayinto the All-Star race.
Both drivers continue to insist everything is just fine.
"We're a couple Yankees from up North, and we yell and scream ateach other," said Logano, who like Zipadelli hails from Connecticut.
"That's just how we communicate. I think that's how everyonecommunicates that's from up there. So that's not a big deal. I justsaw both of us getting frustrated, and it is what it is. It worksout all right. We don't hold grudges. We just keep going."
And Hamlin, who has been with Ford all six years in the SprintCup Series, can't imagine working with anyone but his current crewchief.
"Everybody thinks that Chad Knaus is the best crew chief in thegarage, if you had him move over to the 11 car, I guarantee you werun worse for a long while," Hamlin said. "It just works for meright now. We have the same personality. He knows how I work; I knowhow he works.
"So I just don't think that anybody is going to help me rightnow. I've got to work through all that stuff myself."
Both drivers are trying to do exactly that right now.
Hamlin was decent during the Coca-Cola 600 despite engine issuesthat plagued him over the course of NASCAR's longest race of theseason. But he was still fourth as the race closed in on the final100 laps, and Ford called him to pit road to change the carburetorand correct the engine issue once and for all.
It dropped Hamlin to 27th on the board, but he worked his wayback into the top five in the closing laps, only to run out of gasand finish 10th.
Logano, meanwhile, was in danger of going a lap down early in therace, but through pointed and direct conversation with Zipadellithey were able to make enough adjustments on his Toyota to worktheir way through the field.
His final finish was aided by the many cars in front of him thatran out of gas, but Logano had still hung in for what would havebeen a top-10 finish regardless of other drivers' fuel issues.
Although Logano is currently 23rd in points and Charlotte wasjust his second top-10 finish of the season, he and Zipadelli bothknow they've run better than what the statistics show. A combinationof driver mistakes and really bad luck put them in their currenthole, and a few good finishes might be all it takes to turn theseason around.
"I'm just happy to get (a good finish at Charlotte), as many aswe got taken away this year," Logano said. "Hopefully, this will putsome momentum on our side and we have some good race tracks comingup for us."
So does Hamlin, including next week's race at Pocono, where he'sa four-time winner. He's not taking it for granted that histurnaround will continue at Pocono, but he's excited about thestretch of summer racing that's ahead.
"We have great tracks (coming up), but it's not only that, it'shot race tracks," he said. "I need hot race tracks to really performwell. That suits my style. That's the way I've always raced. ...Quick, fast everywhere we go setting track records is not my styleof driving.
"I'm more of a smooth driver who takes care of his equipment forthe end. That doesn't get rewarded when we're setting track recordseverywhere."
Hamlin also praised team owner Joe Gibbs, who he said is workingtirelessly on making the improvements Hamlin and Logano need to geton pace with teammate Kyle Busch.
Busch has been immune from the struggles the other two have had,and he's got two Sprint Cup wins already this season.
"Kyle is running really well with everything right now, so that'sgood from that standpoint," Hamlin said. "But we still have issueswithin the team that we need to continue to work through. And wecontinue to work on them. That's the good part, is Joe Gibbs, if Ibring an issue up to him, he's working overtime."
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