Denny Hamlin made headlines Saturday with his temperament. Sunday he commanded attention with his talent. They are inextricably linked.

Everyone in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing obsesses about where a challenge to the mind-blowing Jimmie Johnson/Hendrick Motorsports supremacy will surface in 2010.

No offense, but documenting and dissecting four straight championships for Johnson, Rick Hendrick and crew chief Chad Knaus -- as awesome as that is and as admirable as they are -- has become monotonous.

Maybe the assault on the champs will begin in the headquarters of a certain team owner who recognizes excellence when he sees it because he achieved it in another athletic venue.

Both Hamlin, whose Ford 400 victory at Homestead was his fourth this Cup season, and tempestuous 24-year-old Kyle Busch, also a four-time winner and reigning Nationwide series champion, steer Toyotas for Joe Gibbs.

The affable 68-year-old team owner who coached the Washington Redskins to three Super Bowl championships before he fielded three Cup championship teams has a couple of tigers who figure to return Joe Gibbs Racing to No. 1 sooner rather than later.

Hamlin exhibited his testy, feisty side Saturday in the Nationwide series Ford 300 when he carried out a grudge ``hit'' on rival Brad Keselowski and sent Keselowski spinning down Homestead's front straight.

PUNISHED

NASCAR penalized Hamlin a lap. Hamlin, who had vowed to avenge a Keselowski slam at Phoenix a week earlier, said the satisfaction of dumping Keselowski was worth the penalty. ``He's still going to think about it when I'm in his rearview mirror,'' he said afterward.

At the checkered flag Sunday, everyone was in Hamlin's rearview mirror and had been for the final 45 of 267 laps. That brought a fresh assessment of where he might have been in Chase for the Cup points had he not had a plague of three ``DNFs.''

That's ``did not finish.'' Two blown engines and an accident in the span of four races more than offset the two victories and two runner-up finishes in the 10-race showdown.

``You look at the final point standings and call a DNF [a loss of] 100 points and we would have been right there [with Johnson],'' he said after beating Jeff Burton to the checkered flag by 2.63 seconds. Hamlin finished fifth in points, 317 behind Johnson.

``It's tough to play the numbers game, and what-if,'' Hamlin said. ``All I know is we've been competitive enough to run with them.

``But those guys have been the standard,'' he added of the Johnson/Knaus juggernaut. ``That's who we ultimately want to be, the guys who are a dominating force. I think we're showing that we have that strength to compete with those guys.''

Joe Gibbs celebrated Cup championships with Bobby Labonte in 2000 and with Tony Stewart in 2002 and 2005. (Coping with the tempestuous Stewart bodes well for Gibbs' ability to endure the periodic fits of temper and shoot-from-the-hip verbiage of which both Hamlin and Kyle Busch are capable.)

Gibbs, who has turned daily operation of his team over to son J.D., fully believes that Hamlin and Kyle Busch have not only championship ability but the necessary fire inside to reach the pinnacle.

``What we're showing is we can win races; we can lead laps,'' Gibbs said of the 2009 season. ``Now we have to find a way to be consistent enough to run for a championship.''

ADMIRATION

That's a steep mountain to climb, he admitted.

``I think the hardest thing in pro sports, in any pro sport -- because the best people in the world are doing it -- is to stay [on top],'' he said.

``You look at the NFL, like at [2008 AFC runner-up] Tennessee from last year to this [an also-ran], you bounce all over because everybody's real close.''

But Hendrick Motorsports keeps steamrolling the competition and shows no chinks in the armor. Had Johnson stumbled at all this year, Hendrick's company would have celebrated the championship anyway with Mark Martin.

``When they have been able to do speaks volumes,'' Gibbs said. ``Everybody's chasing them. We've got work to do.''

But he's not without weapons. Hamlin and Kyle Busch will spearhead the attack. And neither is shy about nudging somebody aside to get to the front.