Jeff Gordon's Biggest Threat and the Best Driver at Joe Gibbs Racing Won Sunday

With almost cat like stealth Denny Hamlin has managed to put together a season that would be a career year for most drivers -- yet Sunday was only his 60th NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race.

The big NASCAR media has been focused on everything but Denny Hamlin this year.

The stories have been HMS dominance, Junior mania and the NEXTEL Cup inspection police going Rodney King on teams and drivers since they discovered the NAPA 55 car had replaced the fuel cell with the flux capacitor the stolen from the DeLorean in Back to the Future.

In fact, the most attention Hamlin had gotten this season was for car jacking a ride in the Milwaukee Busch race.

Meanwhile, Hamlin has been running up front all year. New Hampshire was his third win in his young career and first of the year.

What should scare Jeff Gordon is that this could have just as easily been Hamlin's fourth of the season.

He's also doing what Tony Stewart still won't: finish races. It is why Hamlin made The Chase last year and the face of JGR watched from 11th place. The #20 has been looking up at the #11 for almost all of 2007 and did so for most of 2006.

The #11's last DNF was in April of 2006--an absolutely incredible run. This year, he is number one in lead lap finishes and laps completed.

Hamlin has also shown he can be a contender at every type of track on the NEXTEL Cup circuit.

Things aren't perfect for Hamlin. The Milwaukee Busch series episode and the pit crew issues point to serious communications issue within the team. Those are the kind of issues that can turn into mistakes that let Gordon run away with the championship.

Those are also issues the team can fix.

It is important to note that New Hampshire was not Hamlin's best race of the season and the #11 wasn't the best car. His pit crew won the race.

Not just because they picked up the lead on pit road by going with only two tires, either.

Half way through the race, Juan Pablo Montoya (doing what JPM does best) crushed Hamlin's left rear. The #11 crew patched the thing back together with string, tape and bailing wire. The rear tires were smoking in the turns the rest of the race, yet Hamlin was able to put together some of the fastest laps on the track and didn't fall out of contention. What's more, Hamlin didn't lose his mind when it happened.

If this team can keep that kind of performance up, the big story of this season will be Hamlin upsetting Gordon for The NEXTEL Cup. They've got the driver to do it.

Click here to get more of the NASCAR dirt, humor and info you won't find anywhere else over at the HQ of The Black Flag.

Okay, I Had a One Night Stand With Danica and Milka. But They Mean Nothing to Me. Really.

I'm in a long term, loving, committed relationship with NASCAR. However, last Saturday, I strayed.

This is the time to come clean. Unlike others, I'm not going to lie and say, "I did not have sex with those women, Ms. Patrick and Ms. Duno."

No, I succumbed to the temptation of some hot, girl-on-girl action and the lure of free tickets from Team Penske/Marlboro to the Indy Car race at Richmond International Raceway.

Not only that, I even got my wife (the hottest member of NASAR MILF Nation) to join in.

Now that it has happened, it's over. And I am more committed than ever. Like I said before, it was just a one night stand. I now appreciate what I have so much more.

Sure, I really enjoyed myself. It wouldn't be honest to pretend otherwise.

But the main event was a bit of a let down. It was all over in less than 90 minutes (250 laps at RIR's 3/4 mile track). There was very little action in terms of passing (almost all of the passes were of lapped traffic).

Everyone keeps a pretty good distance from each other. Contact is to be avoided at all costs (which is understandable since what would result in a nice black donut on the side of a stock car results in large chunks of very expensive race car spread all over the track).

John Markon, columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote after the race:

"Here's a memo to IRL headquarters: Race fans enjoy watching cars pass each other. Unless you can find a way to make the show just a bit better and more competitive, you're going to have a hard time growing your event in this market."

For more details, fun and pictures, click here for a link to the full post over at The Black Flag Blog HQ.