Denny Hamlin heads into Indianapolis with his eyes set on a second consecutive win, fresh off his Dover triumph. While he has already become the first driver this year to bag four Cup wins, a Brickyard 400 win would carry a weight far greater than all four combined to him. Here’s why.
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Hamlin’s resume boasts three Daytona 500 wins (2016, 2019, 2020), three Southern 500 victories at Darlington (2010, 2017, 2021), and a Coca-Cola 600 crown from 2022. So, among NASCAR’s four crown jewel races, the only one missing from his collection is the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and Hamlin is desperate to seize it.
He has come close before, with P3 finishes in 2008, 2014, and 2018, but his most crushing defeat came in 2020. Hamlin reflected on that heartbreak during NASCAR’s The Day After podcast after his Dover win, saying, “To me, 2020 was by far the hardest because I was in control of the race.
“I’m leading, the race is going green all the way out. It’s six laps to go. It was the year me and Kevin Harvick dominated the entire year. I think we won half the races. I’m running one, he’s running two, and I blow a tire with six laps to go.
“And that was just a really, really, really tough one to swallow because we did everything up until that point to execute and win that race. And that was going to be one I was going to check off the list. So, it’s part of your resume.”
In that race, Hamlin had seized the lead from Kevin Harvick with a well-timed undercut pit strategy on lap 122. Once he gained track position and the benefit of clean air, his only remaining worry was whether his right-side tires would last through the final stretch.
Harvick’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, instructed him before the last restart to keep the pressure on Hamlin, hoping to force wear on his right-side tires, even if a direct pass wasn’t possible. Hamlin, however, remained unaware of any cording on his right-side tires during the run and later dismissed the outcome as nothing more than a stroke of circumstance.
On the podcast, Hamlin further recalled last year’s disappointment, when he felt he had another shot at victory but lost his chance after a fuel stop led to a wreck. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing ace admitted that he wants the Brickyard victory really badly, and that when his career is over, he wants that race mentioned alongside his name.
This weekend, Hamlin enters the Brickyard 400 with an average finish of 14.6 across 16 starts, sitting fourth in the driver standings. On paper, his record at the track includes five top-five finishes and eight top-10s, but for Hamlin, only a win will count.
