Hamlin upbeat about his prospects

Hamlin gave Toyota their first Sprint Cup win last week in the Gatorade Duels at Daytona, while his two teammates had arguably the two fastest cars of the day in the Daytona 500, which they finished third and fourth.

Despite that, Hamlin has his sights set on the intermediate tracks, where the bulk of the season is run and where he has already been one of the dominant forces during pre-season testing in January.

"I'm actually a little more excited about the races to come - the mile-and-a-half, two-mile racetracks - California, Vegas, those race tracks," Hamlin said.

"Everything we worked on in the off-season will show up in those races and throughout the year. We definitely know we have the engine thing heading in the right direction right now. We've just got to make sure we've got the mechanical stuff working."

Hamlin was the fastest driver during a two-day test at California in January, where his first few laps on the two-mile oval showed immediate pace. His times with his primary and back-up cars remained unbeaten for the rest of the test.

The 2006 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year is optimistic about this weekend's race at Fontana, although he says they will be very cautious with their running during practice, given the reputation the track has on being very demanding on engines.

"I like California because there are a couple of lines and you can move around to find a place where your car works," Hamlin added. "That makes the racing fun. We had a good test here, had a very good engine package, and our intermediate Camry performed really well so I am optimistic.

"With California's reputation for being extremely hard on engines, the goal for us is to get through practice without putting any unnecessary strain on the engine so we have to be really sharp in practice."

The JGR driver finished 17th last weekend at Daytona, after running strong for most of the first half of the race, leading 32 laps. However, he picked up some damage to the right rear corner of his car, which dropped him down the order and out of contention for victory.