While he went through a horror season last year at Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch this year has really found his stride at Richard Childress Racing having won 3 races already, which makes him only second to William Byron in that regard. However, has he been running well enough or has he got enough to make it all the way into the final 4 of Phoenix? Many would say he does, but Denny Hamlin doesn’t think so.
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Hamlin, who raced with Busch for a better part of both of their careers, is perhaps more aware of Busch’s talent, having seen his two Cup championships. And even though his former teammate has 3 wins this year, the #11 driver thinks he is still not good enough for the final 4 while another one of Busch’s former teammates is.
Denny Hamlin leaves out Kyle Busch from his final 4 prediction
Speaking in a recent episode of his podcast, Hamlin addressed the subject of the final 4 contenders as he made his predictions from which he excluded Busch. It’s worth mentioning that apart from his 3 wins this year, Busch has 7 top-five finishes and 12 finishes inside the top 10.
“Kyle Busch, I don’t understand Kyle Busch. I didn’t think he ran that well yesterday and I looked up and finished 5th. Again, most of the guys that finished up front were part of that stay-out strategy,” Hamin claimed.
“I’m not sure about Kyle, I’m gonna say I’m probably gonna pass on the final 4 there.”
With that said, Hamlin revealed his final 4 predictions, but in that, he faced a big dilemma.
Hamlin makes his final 4 prediction
Having excluded Kyle Busch, later in the episode, Denny Hamlin revealed his 4 contenders for this year’s NASCAR Cup championship showdown in Phoenix. But in doing so, he faced a tough choice to make between two drivers.
“I’m gonna say the final 4 is going to be the #24, #19, there’s the #11, #5, #1, who am I kicking out? It’s really close. It’s a toss-up,” Hamlin said. “I’m gonna, sure, I’ll kick the #1 out. It’s really close though.”
“It’s just, a lot of it is track layout, execution, those last two-three races. I just think that the track’s layout, well for us in general, they typically have. So we’ll see, we’ll see how it goes.”
To conclude, Hamlin emphasized William Byron being an absolutely sure bet for Phoenix, considering he’s “too solid at too many racetracks.” The veteran driver claimed the young #24 driver has “no weaknesses,” which is more or less true.
But could any of the other three drivers in Hamlin’s final 4 predictions, Hamlin himself, Kyle Larson, or Martin Truex Jr. succumb to some weakness and don’t make it? And if so, could it be Ross Chastain who takes their place? Or Kyle Busch?
It’s something only time will tell.
