Denny Hamlin pressed the restart button once again when he got into his No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE at the beginning of the season. The giant hope is that this will finally be the year in which he gets his hands on the Cup Series championship. Optimistically, he has a lot of reasons to be confident following the regular season. He is third in the playoff standings, fully fired up for the 10-race sprint to the title.
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But there is something that could prove to be his kryptonite. In a recent interview with the Motor Racing Network, his former crew chief and the current director of competition at Joe Gibbs Racing, Chris Gabehart, underlined this one weakness that could potentially derail his efforts thus far.
He said, “The one chink in Denny’s and the No. 11 team’s armor, of course, is road course racing. And because there are so many of them, it can break up momentum throughout the year.”
How valid is this assessment? Hamlin has never been a great driver on road courses. That hasn’t changed this year. He finished 21st at the Circuit of the Americas, fourth in the streets of Chicago, 20th at Sonoma, and 25th at Watkins Glen. Worryingly, there is yet another road course race this season.
It will be at the Charlotte Roval, a venue where Hamlin has struggled much in the past. He has finished inside the top-10 at this track just once in seven attempts. Gabehart continued, “Fortunately for Denny, he’s very keenly aware of his strengths and his weaknesses. And I don’t think he lets it affect him too much. But that really is their only weakness.”
He believes that the team must try to keep the good momentum they gain rolling through the weak spots and focus on how strong they actually are. He also expressed his awe at how they have been able to tackle a massive change in the crew chief seat. Serving as Gabehart’s replacement now is Chris Gayle. Any other team would have taken quite a while in adjusting to such a makeover.
But not the No. 11 band. The reason for that is simple. Gabehart explained his instructions to Gayle, “The No. 11 team works really, really well. Its way of doing things works well. So go in, look around, and evolve to the way of doing things while taking notes. And then you tell the team and the driver to do the same thing. Nothing about the team is changing. The process works really, really well.”
So, Gayle didn’t have much to do except be careful about what different instructions he was providing to enhance performance. And it is safe to say now that whatever he has done thus far has proven to be hugely beneficial.
