Consistency is Hamlin’s plan

His younger Joe Gibbs Racing teammate grabs all the headlines, but Denny Hamlin is sticking with his own plan.

Consistency, he thinks, not the flashy boom-or-bust style Kyle Busch employs, is what will win him a championship.

Tonight they’ll race in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, where Busch won last year and where Hamlin has never finished outside the top 10. While Busch enters the race fifth in points with three wins, Hamlin is fourth without any wins.

“He’s always going to be a guy that has more race wins than I will,” Hamlin said. “But I’m battling for -- after race 36, who’s on top there? . . . He’s got more talent than anyone in the garage. To do the things he does, he takes a few more chances and risks. A lot of times, it’s a win or a 30th-place finish. If I’m going to win a championship, I need to run top five every week. I don’t need to win every week.”

Steadiness is why Hamlin leads Busch in points standings. He has not finished worse than 26th and has finished better than 20th seven times this year. He has an average finish of 12.5. Busch, meanwhile, crashed early in Daytona for a 41st-place finish and has only one top-five finish in addition to his wins.

Still Busch’s talent is often compared with NASCAR’s legends.

From almost the moment Busch joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, he’s been a bigger star than Hamlin. While he banged his way to eight wins, Hamlin won one race last year. Busch continued the trend this year.

When Busch was asked if he thought Hamlin wished he were in Busch’s position, he said he didn’t know.

“Denny hasn’t really changed over the time that we’ve been together or been teammates,” Busch said. “So we used to hang out a lot more than what we do recently, just because he’s been busy, I’ve been busy.”

But Hamlin has been studying Busch. He’s watched the season’s first 10 races “over and over” again and thinks he’s deciphered what helps Busch win so often. Busch, Hamlin said, is exceptional on restarts and daring throughout the race.

The idea that Busch is dominant, though, is one to which Hamlin takes exception.

“Kyle’s not dominant,” Hamlin said. “He’s only dominant in the last couple laps of the race.”

What grates on Hamlin more than anything, though, are his own close calls. He finished third eight times in 2008.

This season Hamlin has two second-place finishes in Bristol and Martinsville. Last week in Richmond he led a race-high 148 laps but spent too long in the pits and finished 14th.

“It’s my fourth year,” Hamlin said in February. “It’s time to be a champion -- not a guy that contends.”

If he were running his best and still in fourth place, Hamlin would be worried. The fact that things haven’t all gone the way of the No. 11 team encourages him.

“We’re 100 points behind [first place] and we’ve had a so-so year by my standards,” Hamlin said. “ . . . We’ve had issues here and there. And we’re still right there.”

He’s not so sure about his teammates.

“Mmmmm, I don’t know,” Hamlin said, smiling, when asked whether Busch could win a championship taking the risks he does. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

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tganguli@orlandosentinel.com.