While Kyle Larson views Denny Hamlin as a formidable challenger who could potentially block his path to the NASCAR Cup Series championship, Hamlin himself has yet to clinch that elusive title. Despite being a staple in the NASCAR scene for nearly two decades and consistently delivering strong performances, Hamlin remains one of the few high-profile drivers without a championship win.
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In a conversation with RACER, when asked about his championship drought, the #11 responded, “It’s hard sometimes because there’s been years where it’s like, ‘Well, what happened?’ There are just so many things to the sport that are hard to explain and so many things…”
“I just don’t know if there’s another sport where things are out of your control as much as this one. I try to think of another sport where there are more variables, and I just can’t find one,” he added.
Throughout his career, Hamlin has consistently been a front-runner in the NASCAR series, securing a spot in the championship 4 six times. Notably, in 2010, he was the runner-up after leading the series with eight wins. However, a strategic decision to pit for fuel in the second-to-last race saw him relinquish a large number of points.
His closest competitor, Jimmie Johnson, capitalized on this by finishing in the top five, narrowing Hamlin’s lead to just 15 points after Hamlin had dominated most of the laps that day.
The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver, has also secured third place three times and has been in the top-5 in eight NASCAR Cup seasons overall. Last year, his championship hopes were dashed in the Round of 8, partly due to a power steering failure at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In the current Cup season, Hamlin has won three races during the regular season, but the playoffs have proved challenging. Out of the six playoff races thus far, he has only managed to finish one race in the top 5 and two in the top 10, all while navigating the complexities of an ongoing charter agreement controversy.
Hamlin thinks NASCAR is slipping away from its roots
Hamlin recently attributed his subpar performances in the initial six playoff races to the current NASCAR playoff schedule. Known for his preference for traditional oval-track racing, Hamlin expressed his dissatisfaction with the inclusion of two superspeedways and two road courses early in the playoff lineup.
On his podcast, Hamlin elaborated, “When it comes to my gripe with the schedule and things like that, it’s because, you know, my whole life I tried to be a Cup Series champion. […] I was training for this, or moving up the ranks, all I ever did was oval-track racing, because that’s what NASCAR racing was. We raced on ovals, and they were just all different sizes.”
He continued, “Now, we took Atlanta and turned it into a superspeedway. We’ve changed the game, and we’ve changed — you can argue that superspeedway racing, it definitely still has elements of skill to it. […] The schedule never really this schedule never really suited me or my skill set right I’m not great on road courses.”
While Hamlin admits he needs to improve his performance on road courses, his aspiration remains to master the art of driving faster on ovals than anyone else in NASCAR.
