With six victories this season, Denny Hamlin stands as the odds-on favorite to win the Cup Championship among the final four contenders. Yet his 21-year wait for a title still threatens over one of NASCAR’s most consistent performers, a storyline that fuels both fan anticipation and sentiment.
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Hamlin returns to the Championship 4 for the first time since 2021, when he finished third, while Team Penske’s three-year streak of placing at least one driver in the finale has officially come to an end. So, as Hamlin makes his long-awaited return, Penske bows out.
On his latest Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin weighed in on Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano missing the cut, emphasizing the respect he holds for what the Penske camp accomplished over the past three years. In his words, “Well, it certainly psychologically makes you feel better (that Team Penske didn’t make it to Championship 4).”
“I don’t know that it really matters, but it certainly makes you feel better just because you have to respect you’re an idiot if you don’t respect what they’ve done at that racetrack,” Hamlin added.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver credited Blaney in particular for nearly pulling off another Martinsville triumph.
“I know Blaney downplayed this weekend quite a bit about people just expect me just because I’ve won the last two Martinsville races… It’s easy, I’m going to go do it again. He’s like, it’s not that easy. And he’s right, but he nearly did again. And so, when we all talk about and the media talks about mostly keeping Penske out, it’s just because you have to respect what they’ve done,” Hamlin insisted.
“And you would think that going into that racetrack, if they were part of the Final Four, they would be they would be a favorite to win it, which would be rightfully so,” he continued.
Now, Hamlin faces a final hurdle of the season at Phoenix next weekend: overcoming his rookie teammate, Chase Briscoe, along with Hendrick Motorsports duo Kyle Larson and William Byron.
Having finished in the top 10 in four of the last five Phoenix finales, including two top-fives, the #11 JGR driver will enter with both momentum and unfinished business. This could be the year he finally puts the ghosts of championships past to rest. His team just needs to make sure of one thing that might go against Hamlin: mechanical gremlins.
