By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

Denny Hamlin is an interesting fellow. Last week he was busy being the caddie for his friend Bubba Watson at The Masters Par Three contest, now this week he has a cause that is near and dear to his heart gracing his race car. The colors of The March Of Dimes is on the No. 11 Toyota Camry this weekend, and Hamlin brought a special guest to the media center Friday morning to talk about it.

Kieran Wittstruck is a six-year-old boy who was born 10 weeks premature, yet there he stood in the media center as healthy as could be adorning a miniature firesuit matching the one that Denny Hamlin had on. After bringing everyone’s attention to the importance of supporting the March of Dimes, and just knocking us all out with Kieran’s cuteness – it was time to get to business and talk about Hamlin’s 2012 season.

In 2010 he swept Texas Motor Speedway and those two wins were just a part of his eight win campaign that led him to a devastating runner-up finish to Jimmie Johnson in the point standings. 2011 was a complete disaster for Hamlin. He did win a race, but considering the fact that he was expected to compete for a championship – the fact that he could only muster a ninth place finish in the final point standings was a disappointment. So far this season Hamlin has sort of bounced back.

Hamlin won at Phoenix in the second race of the season, and he already has three top-ten finishes through six races. He also stands firmly in Chase contention currently as he holds the seventh spot in the standings. Hamlin was asked to compare where his team is now, to where they’ve been in the past performance-wise.

“You know, if we were a 10 in 2010 and we were zero last year, just using that scale, I’d say that we’re like a five to six rightnow.  We’re heading – we’re not like we were last year by any means.  We’re better, but we’re not to our 2010 form as far asthe speed of our cars and things like that.  We’re getting there, though.  Every week our stuff is getting better and better.  I thinkthat we are timing this year pretty well right now.  I think that we’re going to start to run well here in these next couple months,” an optimistic Hamlin stated.

According to Hamlin, if he is to have a year like he had back in 2010, he simply needs to improve in qualifying trim.

“There’s a lot of things I need to work on.  Qualifying, every time I come to this place, I look at our past notes and I say I needto qualify better.  Qualifying in the top-10 this weekend will be crucial for us.  Track position does mean so much.  This track itseems like, in particular, you can pass when it’s sunny.  When it’s night time it’s harder to pass because the speeds are so high.  Track position means a lot.  I got to qualify better.  And, really what do we need to work on is just getting more speed out of ourcars.  We know what we need to work on — it takes some time to get it done.”

Nearly every year you can look at the top-12 finishers at Texas Motor Speedway, and chances are a good percentage of those drivers will be guys who go on to compete in the Chase. That being said how important is a good finish at Texas for Hamlin?

“We can, we have a win.  We’re in the top-10 in points, so we can – I hate to say you can afford to have a bad race, but it’s notgoing to kill our championship hopes I don’t think.  In our position, you either win or you don’t as far as bonus points areconcerned.  If you feel like you can be in the top-10 in points, then really the only thing that matters is the wins to carry for thebonuses for the Chase.  For us, second is not much different than 20th when you leave this place.”

It seems like Hamlin is going to go all-in Saturday for the win, which could lead to some exciting spark underneath the lights in Texas. Keep an eye on this No. 11 March Of Dimes Toyota this weekend.

– Toby Christie is the lead Motorsports writer for Sicknissified.com, and he can be reached via twitter or email. Tweet him @Tobalical or email him at tobalical@sicknissified.com. You can also find his work at TheFinalLap.com this weekend.