Denny Hamlin suffered electrical problems last week during the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. (Jason Smith/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos

ON THE EDGE Denny Hamlin entered the last NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway seventh in points and came out 12th, after an electrical problem in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota dropped him to 40th. Now, he needs a good finish in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard to solidify his chance at making the Chase for the Sprint Cup field, which will be set in seven races.

“We can’t help problems like we had right there,” said Hamlin. “We can but a gauge shorting out and killing the whole car doesn’t happen that often. Based on performance we should make the Chase. If we don’t have stupid things like that happen every other week then we’re fine. We’ve really gone from third or fourth in the points over the last probably six weeks to where we are at now. It’s just comes from bad luck. I’m OK with it as long as we make the Chase and we get our good luck then.”

GOOD ADVICE John Andretti, who has driven both IndyCars and stock cars at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has been coaching NASCAR rookie and Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr. about what to expect when Hornish has to wrestle a stock car around the 2.5-mile track.

“I was talking to Sam Hornish Jr. yesterday and I told him that Indianapolis isn’t even going to feel like Indianapolis when you go out there,” said Andretti. “The warm-up lane is in the same place and everything is in the same place. It just looks so different. Even inside the cart, in the way you look at it, your perception of it (is different),” Andretti said.

NOTES Just five drivers have competed in all 14 prior Allstate 400 at the Brickyard races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin. All five are entered this year, too. … Juan Pablo Montoya is the only driver to have raced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Indy 500, Brickyard 400 and the United States Grand Prix Formula 1 race.

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to