Many times this season, Denny Hamlin has claimed that this year is his year. That 2023 would be the year when he wins his first-ever Cup title. So far, the prophecy seems to be unfolding just about right for the #11 driver.
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Because ever since the playoffs began, Hamlin has looked a sure contender to win the race on any given weekend. And if that wasn’t enough, Hamlin now has ‘rivals’ singing his tune too.
Kyle Petty, who has, let’s just say, a history with Denny Hamlin, recently opened up on why 2023 could be Hamlin’s year on the NASCAR on NBC podcast.
Denny Hamlin can do ‘nothing wrong’ in 2023, Kyle Petty claims
Speaking about Denny Hamlin after the race in Talladega, Petty claimed, “When it’s your year, it’s your year and this appears to be Denny’s year because of these little things we’re watching right now.”
The former NASCAR driver claimed Hamlin is recovering from situations that could be “catastrophic” for others. “Right now, Denny is on a high. They can do nothing wrong. They can speed on the pit road. They can do whatever they want to do and they’re going to salvage a top five,” Petty described.
However, there is an area where Petty believes Hamlin and his team can clean things up just a little.
Hamlin and the #11 team still need to work on one crucial aspect
After appreciating Denny Hamlin’s consistency and the high he’s in heading into the final race of this round of playoffs, Kyle Petty pointed to the area where he thinks the #11 team can improve. That area is, of course, the pit road woes for the #11 team. If Hamlin’s team can fix that, Petty thinks there’d be nobody in their league, even some of the biggest names in NASCAR today.
And because of that, Hamlin is going to go all the way to the very final race of the season, with everything to win. “I don’t believe Larson is in that league right now. Because Larson will have made a mistake and something and they don’t recover. We know Truex has not recovered from anything so who else is there? Right now there’s just Denny Hamlin and it’s going to fall on him going into Phoenix,” Petty explained.
“Because I don’t believe he’s going to get knocked out.”
With that said, Petty added that it’d be on Hamlin to put together that “one perfect race” to walk off with his first-ever NASCAR Cup title because everything is lining up for him to have that.
