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Darlington: Winning team interview

DENNY HAMLIN , No. 20 Z-Line Designs/Operation Helmet Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 1st How good was your car tonight? "This was a great race car. Congratulations to Kevin Kidd (crew chief), this is his first win at Joe ...

Edited: May 8, 2010, 6:01 AM

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DENNY HAMLIN , No. 20 Z-Line Designs/Operation Helmet Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st

How good was your car tonight?

"This was a great race car. Congratulations to Kevin Kidd (crew chief), this is his first win at Joe Gibbs Racing, taking over for Dave Rogers. Me and Dave (Rogers) did, I think, a pretty good job building this program over the last three to four years and a lot of credit goes to Dave. He's moved on and had some success but now it's time for Kevin (Kidd) to show what he's got. He gave me a great race car. It was that easy. When you have a car that drives as good as it did today, it makes your job a whole lot easier. I gotta thank Monica Sexton (Z-Line Designs), we won the competition with Kyle (Busch). Everyone at Z-Line Designs, Toyota, FedEx, WileyX, Gillette, everyone from Nationwide Insurance for helping put this on."

What is the Z-Line Designs 'Operation Helmet?'

"We're giving away after-market padding for the helmets -- the stock stuff is pretty hard and pretty tough on the guys out there. We wanted to make their jobs easy as possible. We're donating all that stuff for free. I gotta thank Joe Gibbs oils as well. They help us with a lot of stuff in a lot of races."

What does it mean to win on Mother's Day Weekend?

"It's special, that's for sure. I don't consider myself a very good Nationwide driver, and to get a win like this on Mother's Day. She's my number one fan. She's always at every single souvenir hauler. She's a big Twitter fanatic, like I am. Everyone can keep up through with what I'm doing through her or myself. She's just having so much fun. My parents sacrificed a lot when I was growing up. They didn't get to take vacations or buy any nice cars because they were busy building me good race cars. Now they get to live the life that they should."

How tough was it to battle Kyle Busch on the late-race restarts?

"Kyle (Busch) is so good on restarts, it's hard to hold him off.  I knew that if I could just hold him off for one lap, we could clear
him.  He gave us a run for our money.  It's so hard on this race track to run two-wide, especially that first corner, but me and him
made it work.  I talked to him over the radio.  I said, 'Is this the new Kyle, or the old Kyle?'  It depends on which one is gonna
race me.  Kevin Kidd's (crew chief) first win with this race team, and everyone from Z-Line Designs."

How does it feel to run for a team so competitive in the Nationwide Series?

"Up until I'd say probably three years ago when Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide Series their teams really hit their stride, we also went 10 years with no wins. We watched RCR do this same thing for five or six years. This was the work of myself and Dave (Rogers) and a lot of guys with that Nationwide program. The way we're running now has to do with the work we've done three or four years ago and helped build this program into what it is. And now it's up to Kevin (Kidd, 20 crew chief) and Jason (Ratcliff, 18 crew chief) to keep that going. And that's the hardest part. Once you get onto just trying to stay onto. They've got the task of doing that and this year obviously they've shown that they can step up to the plate. As myself and Joey (Logano) and Kyle (Busch) expect to get in the best race cars once we get in them and that's what makes it a lot of fun to get into the Nationwide Series cars. When we step in this 18 or 20 car we know we've got the best stuff."

KEVIN KIDD , crew chief, No. 20 Z-Line Designs/Operation Helmet Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How good does it feel to get your first Nationwide Series win?

"It's just an overwhelming feeling right now to be able to go to victory lane and particularly to do it at a place like this. It has as much history in it with great crew chiefs and great drivers who have been to victory lane here. I'm just proud to be a part of that now."

-source: toyota motorsports

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