A Confused Denny Hamlin’s Bold Pick for Daytona 500: Kyle Busch

Considering all that he has achieved and all that he’s still capable of achieving, is there realistically something that can be said that can qualify as a hot take or a bold prediction involving Kyle Busch? Turns out, yes. Because this is exactly what his former teammate Denny Hamlin just did.

The #11 driver recently made his bold prediction ahead of the Daytona 500, and the driver he named was the 2x Cup champion with over 200 wins across all three tiers of NASCAR, Kyle Busch.

“I have a bold prediction: Kyle Busch wins his first Daytona 500,” Hamlin said on his podcast show, prompting his co-host to wonder, “How is that bold?”

“HE’S NEVER WON IT,” Hamlin exclaimed as he hammered in on his ‘bold pick’ once again, saying, “Kyle Busch wins it for the first time after 20 years of trying…20 years of frustration.”

Later in the same podcast, Hamlin shared a few more thoughts on Kyle Busch ahead of his second season with Richard Childress Racing.

Denny Hamlin shares his confusion about Kyle Busch

Speaking about how Kyle Busch might do in the upcoming NASCAR Cup Season, Denny Hamlin had somewhat of a confused stance. “He had the most unassuming three wins of all last year. One happened early and then another one and then I know he won at St. Louis. I don’t even know the third one. But I just feel like … I don’t know what to make of it,” he said.

“What should our expectations be for Kyle Busch?”

Hamlin pointed to Busch’s legacy at this stage of his career with his win tally currently standing at 63 and wondered if he’s going to be a part of the Mt. Rushmore of NASCAR drivers considering drivers like Kyle Larson and Joey Logano also knocking on that door. “There’s others coming that could potentially get a bigger win total,” the JGR driver said of the former JGR driver.

Having said that, Denny Hamlin emphasized that not many drivers are going to catch Kyle Busch.

But then again, with the way things were for Busch last year and for RCR, Hamlin wondered if it is time to tamper expectations ahead of their second season together.“As a talent, he’s like Kyle Larson, where he’s expected to win 4 races a year. Because of his talent. He’s going to win 4 races a year,” Hamlin described.

But then those 4 wins didn’t come last year. What came was 3 forgettable wins and a “really bad playoff” campaign.

In fact, Hamlin went as far as to claim that even Kyle Busch will admit that last season, “they kind of lost it.”