Denny Hamlin is currently on the cusp of becoming a NASCAR Cup Series champion. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the South Point 400 in Las Vegas to secure a Championship 4 spot and is eagerly awaiting the season finale at the Phoenix Raceway. As things stand, he is widely regarded to be the best driver to never win a championship. But what do his fellow drivers think of him?
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Several NASCAR drivers were asked who the greatest driver to never win a championship was at Vegas recently, and most of their responses came out to be either Hamlin or the iconic Mark Martin.
Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Josh Berry, Chase Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, and a few others were all uniform in this answer.
Larson particularly noted, “I mean, I guess it would be between Denny [Hamlin] and Mark Martin, right? I didn’t get to compete with Mark a whole lot, you know? I wanna say Denny just because I see how good he is.”
Briscoe reflected, “I mean, it’s gotta be either Mark or Denny. I didn’t get to race against Mark. So, it’s hard for me to really say. Denny is extremely good. So, one of those two. Flip a coin.”
What do the numbers say?
This close battle between Hamlin and Martin is the kind from which legends are made. It isn’t without reason that drivers find it difficult to decide who among them stands taller. Making his Cup Series debut in 2005, Hamlin has recorded 60 wins across 718 appearances so far. Martin, on the other hand, recorded 40 wins across 882 races spanning 31 years.
Crown jewel wins are a key criterion by which NASCAR drivers are judged, and Hamlin holds the upper hand on this front as well. He has won the Daytona 500 and the Southern 500 three times each, and the Coca-Cola 600 once. Martin won the Southern 500 twice and the Coca-Cola 600 once. Notably, he also captured the Winston 500 in 1995 and 1997.
Martin won the IROC championship five times — in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2005 — an achievement Hamlin has yet to match. The debate over who is greater, Hamlin or Martin, has raged for years. But it could finally come to an end on November 2 in Phoenix, for Hamlin may no longer be the greatest driver to never win a championship.
