Denny Hamlin, winner of Sunday’s LENOX Industrial Tools 300 Nextel Cup race, said he will always be indebted to Gardiner’s Steve Prescott and his EJP [E.J. Prescott] Racing team.

In 2004, Prescott reached an agreement with Joe Gibbs Racing to put a young driver in a Prescott truck in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

That young driver was Hamlin, who was one of Gibbs Racing’s developmental drivers. He was then 23.

Hamlin drove five races for Prescott, collecting three top-16 finishes.

He finished 10th at the Indianapolis Raceway Park, 11th at New Hampshire International Speedway and 16th at Richmond International Raceway. He also collected an 18th at Texas Motor Speedway and a 23rd at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“They played a huge role in me getting where I was at,” said Hamlin, following Sunday’s postrace press conference in Loudon, N.H. “We had a great experience with those guys. They definitely taught me a lot and were a huge part of my stepping stone to Nextel Cup.”

Prescott explained, “They wanted him to get some seat time and get approved at different-sized tracks for NASCAR.”

Drivers have to show they can drive competitively at a variety of different tracks to earn NASCAR approval to drive in races in the top three touring series: Craftsman Trucks, Busch and Nextel Cup.

“He was a real good kid and he was full of natural talent,” recalled Prescott. “Everybody knew he was going places and going places fast. He knows how to wheel it. He has a very calm demeanor and attitude. He was willing to tell you what the truck was doing so you could make changes to it. After he went back out, he’d tell you if he liked the changes or not.

“He was easy to communicate with. He was a pretty mellow guy,” added Prescott.

Prescott knew before he had even raced that Hamlin had a gift.

“He tested for us at Thompson [International Speedway, Conn.] and he was consistent. He ran five or 10 laps and he didn’t vary in lap times, even by [as little as] hundredths of a second,” said Prescott.

Hamlin said he will “never forget that race at Loudon. I finished 11th for those guys.”

Hamlin started the Sylvania 200 in 19th, got as high as second on lap 120, came out of a pit stop on lap 138 in 21st and made his way back to 11th.

Due to a wreck and impending darkness, the last two laps were run under the caution flag.

Prescott said Hamlin definitely would have finished within the top 10 if they had raced the final two laps.

Hamlin said he saw a couple of EJP “crew guys on pit road right before the Busch race [on Saturday]. It’s good they’re still here in the sport.”

Prescott said he had hoped to have Hamlin race more races for him in the future “but [Gibbs] had him in the Busch Series the next year.”

Prescott finished fifth in the Busch series as a rookie in 2005 and was the Rookie of the Year in the Nextel Cup series last year, becoming the first rookie to qualify for the Chase.

The Chesterfield, Va., native finished third in points a year ago, the top finish by a rookie in the modern era (1972-on).

He is currently running second to Jeff Gordon in the Nextel Cup points standings with 11 top-10 finishes in 17 races. He is also running part time in the Busch series with eight top-10s in 11 races.

He has three career wins in Nextel Cup and three in the Busch series.

“We definitely keep a close eye on him and we root for him,” said Prescott.