Before NASCAR drivers had even landed at the street course in Chicago, several of them had doubts about the racing aspect there. Among the biggest skeptics was Denny Hamlin, who was wary of how things might play out. Turns out, after Denny Hamlin managed to win the pole during qualifying, he seems to have really fallen for the track. In a recent interview, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver took his time to speak in high regard about NASCAR’s first-ever street course.
Advertisement
He also believed that the track had the potential for the future as well and admitted that he had a different opinion before coming to the Windy City for the race.
Denny Hamlin praises the Chicago Road Course after winning the pole
The inaugural Grant Park 220 has proven to be a good event for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver so far. This is mostly due to him winning the pole lap ahead of 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick. The competition to be the fastest had been on tight margins, with Hamlin only winning the pole by 0.044 seconds.
Unsurprisingly, during the qualification runs we even got to witness a handful of wrecks involving veteran drivers like Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott. But now with just the race ahead of this on Sunday, Hamlin seems to believe that this track has more to offer.
Hamlin mentioned, “Just amazing. The course is actually very, very good and race-able. I think there’s going to be a ton of passing zones, I was a skeptic, I really was. I thought [it was] too narrow, I mean, who knows how it races. But I just feel like the town is very welcoming to us. Everyone we’ve seen walking down the streets is excited to come to the race. Glad to be here.”
Can Denny Hamlin win the race on Sunday?
Despite Hamlin’s confident run to the top of the field on Saturday, winning on Sunday might still be a hard one, considering the JGR driver was not exactly the fastest during practice. It was the Australian v8 Supercars champion, Shane Van Gisbergen who apparently seemed to be the fastest of them all. The Australian is driving for the Trackhouse Racing team’s Project 91 car this weekend.
With this being a completely new format of racing, where being a veteran of the sport does not really give one any benefits, literally anything can happen during race day. As for Hamlin, he does have an advantage, since he would be starting up front. Thereby, if any incidents were to occur during the opening laps, he would most probably not be involved in the carnage.
