Last Wednesday NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin found himself battling mixed emotions as he stood at the left hand of President Barack Obama.

  On one hand, a special invitation to the White House left Hamlin exited to return to Washington D.C. for the second time and take a closer look at the historic building.

  But at the public ceremony honoring the group of NASCAR drivers, it was hard to miss the fact that Jimmie Johnson stood at the right hand of the President. As much of an honor it was for the drivers to be invited to the White House, this was clearly Johnson’s day.

  In an East Room ceremony, Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer watched as Obama honored Johnson for his accomplishments in NASCAR and his five straight Sprint Cup titles, the latest in which he edged out Hamlin on the final race of the 2010 season.

  “With so much extraordinary talent going on bumper to bumper in every race, just making the Chase is hard enough let along winning the whole thing” Obama said. “That’s why Jimmie is not only one of the best drivers of all time, he’s up there with some of the best sports dynasties. If you think about it, only the Boston Celtics, the Yankees and the Canadians have won more than four titles in a row.”

  It was far from the first time Hamlin stood by as witness to how close he had come to claiming his first NASCAR title. After nearly a year he still felt the painful thorn in his side from reminders of the near miss.

  Watching Johnson honored once again made those feelings reemerge. “Of course all that stuff rekindles and obviously makes you think of those different things,” he said.  “It bothers you at times but you know you’ve got to relive it because you’ve got a full year of different tributes to our champion.
Respectfully to Jimmie he earned it and deserved it and I’m not going to take anything away from him.

  Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch said in many ways Hamlin is not alone in his feelings. “It gets to all of us, trust us,” he said. “We all sit there and watch Jimmie, Jimmie, Jimmie and we’re all, ‘Come on man, how much more does this guy need?’

  “But it’s good,” Busch added. “When you win the championship that’s the recognition you want. The only problem is it’s too much of Jimmie is because he’s won it five times in a row. So he deserves it.”

  For Hamlin, the past year has been a matter of channeling those feelings into something positive. “It is motivation, that’s all you can use it for because last year is last year.”

  And this year has been far different from 2010.”

  When Hamlin left Richmond last September he was the top driver heading into the Chase. This year he fought to even make it into the championship run.

  Fighting back from the constant reminders of Johnson’s accomplishments was evident in Hamlin’s synopsis of this season.

  “We’ve had our struggles this year,” he said. “When you look at all the DNFs and all the different mechanical failures and driver errors that we’ve had this year, for anybody else we’d be 22nd in points right now but we’re in for a shot to win a championship if things go good this weekend.”