LOUDON -- Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, owners of nine NASCAR Sprint Cup championships between them, found the statement a bit bold.

They had no problem with Denny Hamlin declaring via social media after last week's Chase to the Sprint Cup opener at Chicagoland Speedway that he was going to win today's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It's not quite the way they go about their business, though.

Gordon said he can't recall making such a prediction.

“Not to the public, no,” Gordon said to the laughs of a handful of media members gathered around his hauler. “I've said it to myself. I called Steve Letarte (his former crew chief) one time years ago and told him before Sonoma that we were going to win the race and that day we did, but that's the only time I can ever remember doing that.”

Hamlin's brash comment — meant more as a rallying cry for the troops he said when he got to Loudon — adds a little fire to today's race, the second in the Chase.

Gordon, who qualified first for today's race, hopes to add his own intrigue to the Chase and rebound from a tough race last weekend with a big finish to help him climb back into the championship picture.

Johnson finished second to Brad Keselowski at Chicagoland and is second in points to him at this juncture. He starts 20th today and plans to make a run at a top spot.

“I feel like we will be up there in the mix,” Johnson said. “We keep getting top threes in this stage of the game and I will be real happy.”

Hamlin's shooting for a couple of spots higher than that.

He's putting a lot on the line said Johnson, whose streak of five straight Cup titles was ended last season by Tony Stewart.

“I'm not against the statement,” Johnson said. “You certainly put yourself out on a limb if it doesn't happen and draw a lot of attention to yourself during the weekend. If you back it up, you are going to look like a superhero.”

Backing up the boast became a little more difficult for Hamlin as of late afternoon on Friday.

He had run the fastest in the weekend's first practice and was the last driver to go out and for qualifying and the question was whether he would knock Gordon off the pole.

Hamlin struggled and turned in the 32nd fastest time and will start deep in the field.

The problem, Hamlin explained, was that his tires did not have adequate air pressure because they were set up for racing rather than for qualifying.

“Simple mistake,” Hamlin said.

It was the second mistake in as many Chase weeks for Hamlin's team. At Chicagoland, his gas man did not get enough product in the car on a late pit stop and he ended up running out of fuel and limping to a 16th-place finish.

That led to the post-race tweet — “This is week 1 of 10. We will win next week” — that had folks talking at Loudon.

It was much media ado about little, Hamlin said.

“Just confident that we could win,” Hamlin said. “It's no different than the nine Chase tracks that we go to, other than Dover where I'm going to be realistic. I feel like we can win each and every one of them. Really, it's nothing more than that. It was really meant to be nothing more than just, 'Hey, we'll get them next week. We'll win it next week.'”

Fact of the matter is, Hamlin entered the Chase hot and with confidence based on his four wins this year, two of them in the last three races before the Chase began.

Some of the confidence at NHMS in particular comes from the way Hamlin ran here in July while finishing second to Kasey Kahne, and the way he has run here in the past.

“I don't think it (the statement) is too bold because of how he competed here the race before,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr. “I think he had an outstanding race car and should have won the race. I can understand the confidence.”

Johnson can, too.

“He was really strong here in July,” Johnson said. “In my mind, I've kind of put him down as the favorite and I know that we were awfully strong, too.”

The stumble in qualifying did little to diminish Hamlin's confidence.

“We'll rebound from it,” he said. “We're quick enough.”

Then he went out and backed up that comment by being fastest in each of the two Cup practices on Saturday.

Today, he'll work on backing up his winning tweet.

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Allen Lessels covers motor sports for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.