Denny Hamlin comes into this season’s NASCAR Cup playoffs third in the standings. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has had an excellent season to date, with four wins (tied with Shane van Gisbergen for the series lead), along with 11 top-fives and 13 top-10 finishes.
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Given all that, Hamlin is without question one of the top contenders for the championship. To say the least, it’s one of the 44-year-old Hamlin’s best seasons of his 21-year Cup career.
Hamlin has come close several times to taking the Cup crown, including finishing second in 2010, third in 2006, 2014 and 2021, and fourth in 2019 and 2020.
In other words, he’s come close but never enjoyed a championship cigar like his buddy and fellow 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan enjoyed with each of his six NBA championships.
And, without jinxing him, Hamlin also is realistic: he knows that this could potentially be the last time he has a chance at that elusive first career Cup championship.
Even though Hamlin is rarely without confidence, he comes into Sunday’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway with a bit of an Achilles’ heel on his mind.
“Just execution,” Hamlin said during this week’s NASCAR Cup playoff media day in Charlotte. “That’s the only thing I can really think of.
“If it’s going to be based off of speed, pit crew, all those things, we are at the top of the list. Certainly in the upper echelon of guys that are going to be racing for the championship.
“But it’s all the variables that we just don’t know about. (Like) ill-timed cautions, you pit, green flag cycle and someone crashes coming onto pit road, and a yellow comes out.
“It changes the complete complexion of the race. So it’s some of the things we can’t control and some of the things we can. It is all of the other stuff.
“It is not speed. It is not qualifying. It is not long run speed. We have all of those things. It is just other things involved in NASCAR racing that can take you out.”
With speed almost being a guarantee in his No. 11 Toyota, what will Darlington have in store for Denny Hamlin this Sunday? There’s only one way to find out.
