Denny Hamlin won the year’s first race at Darlington Raceway, pulling off a textbook overtime finish after a clutch final stop from his Joe Gibbs Racing crew sealed the Goodyear 400 trophy. But when the playoffs rolled back into “The Lady in Black,” the script flipped.
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Pit road miscues and clutch trouble spoiled his night, leaving him seventh at the flag. On Monday’s Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin chalked it up to “gremlins rearing its head,” a nagging issue that’s surfaced this year.
Now he turns the page to Gateway, where three starts have netted him a 12.7 average finish, including a pair of top fives. For Hamlin, it’s a prime chance to shore up his 2025 playoff standing.
In his media session before the second playoff race, Hamlin kept his eyes on the immediate task. He admitted he doesn’t dwell on the next round, only the race in front of him, though he acknowledged tougher tracks lie ahead.
The first round’s all ovals are “pretty straightforward” for him and the place to bank wins and points. Hamlin said, “If the second round has a little more challenge to it, then we need to stack those playoff points in this round. I haven’t focused on that round quite yet.”
When asked about his target cushion, Hamlin set the bar clearly, adding, “Anything 50 or more is a pretty comfortable spot, even if you typically DNF.
“You have to add in if the people below the cut, are they really legitimate contenders to win a race or not, at Bristol? So, 50 or more would be fine. Even if it is less than that, it’s fine.”
He pointed back to last season’s trip to Bristol, where a slimmer margin forced him into a conservative approach. This time, he’d prefer to arrive without a care, free to attack, as Jeff Gluck noted when discussing tire strategy.
The No. 11 JGR Toyota driver knows Bristol rewards aggression, and he stressed that no driver wants to chase a win with the weight of elimination hanging over their head.
For Hamlin, the goal is to pile up points at Gateway and take the sting out of the short track gauntlet to come, although he carries a strong career average finish of 10.5 at that specific track type.
And now that he has already grabbed the pole position at WWT Raceway, it could get much easier for him to bag his target cushion points.
