Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
Denny Hamlin has an awesome NASCAR Cup Series career. Just take a look:
–58 career wins
–245 top-5s (34 percent of his starts)
–371 top-10s (52 percent)
But there’s one big goose egg: Championships.
Denny Hamlin is hoping luck is on his side as he attempts to end his championship drought.
Hamlin has been part of the postseason 18 times. And 18 times he has come away with no championship. The car nor the format have not mattered when it comes to him conquering the point system at that given time.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished second in the standings in 2010. He was third in three others.
Since the elimination-style playoffs started in 2014, he has made them every time. He has made the semifinal round nine times and the championship round in four of those years.
So with four wins this year, is this the year?
“For 20 years, I’ve tried to give an explanation of why one year is different than another, but truthfully, they’re not different,” Hamlin said. “I’m running as fast as I’ve ever run. We’re winning as many races as anyone in the series.
“It’s just a matter whether the things we can’t control keep us from competing or not. Mistakes will be a big factor. Do I make any mistakes? I don’t know. It’s all yet to be seen. It’s can you execute? And if we execute at the left-turn [non-road-course] tracks, we’re fast enough to go all the way.”
Hamlin enters the playoffs seeded third with a 23-point cushion on the current cutoff entering the first of the three three-race rounds where wins allow a driver to advance and those winless with the fewest points after three races are eliminated. Then in the championship race, the four finalists enter on equal footing with the best finisher winning the title.
“Every year could be the year for Denny,” said close friend and 2021 Cup champion Kyle Larson. “He’s such a threat every year and everywhere. He ran good at [championship race site] Phoenix earlier this year — he hasn’t really ran that well at Phoenix, I feel like, in quite some time.
“If I can’t win it or one of my teammates can’t win it, I would love to see him finally get over that hump and get a championship because he deserves it. He’s done a lot for the sport.”
Denny Hamlin has won plenty of times in his career, unfortunately, just not in the championship race.
With the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2021, the field has seemed tighter with fewer dominant drivers. That was by design as all the teams get the majority of their chassis and parts and pieces (except engines) from the same vendor.
“Everything is just a little bit closer,” Hamlin said. “Track position means a little more. Qualifying means a little bit more. Playoff points are spread out among the field, slightly more than what it’s been in the past.
“If anything, you’re looking at probably the bottom four guys right now champing at the bit, knowing they’re only 20-some points out of the point lead. So I think that it’s wide open from that stance of where you could have someone very unexpected make it to the final four.”
Hamlin said he doesn’t want his crew chief, Chris Gayle, to change any of the way he calls races. It is the first year Hamlin is working with Gayle, who has spent most of his career with young drivers in his car.
“We’ve got as many wins as anyone,” Hamlin said. “We’re not going to change much, and I hope that he doesn’t change his mindset going into these last 10 [races] because I want him to call the race and call the shots freely.
“I’m going to go this into this year as loose as I’ve ever gone. If we win, we win. If we don’t, we don’t. As long as I can win a few more races before the end of the year, it’s going to be very successful year for the 11 team, and I’ll be happy with whatever result we get from that.”
What Hamlin was referring to was that a couple more wins would get him to 60 for his career, a benchmark that he wants to achieve. This won’t be Hamlin’s last season as he recently signed a two-year extension through 2027.
“If Denny won it all, I’d be super happy for him,” said his JGR teammate Chase Briscoe said. “You don’t win as many races as you do without deserving to be a champion, and Denny, arguably, is the best of all time without a championship.”
Hamlin has won races in 19 of the last 20 years, and has won at least three times in each of the last three years. For the last five years, he has co-owned 23XI Racing with basketball legend Michael Jordan.
“I wouldn’t say anything about this year stands out as to why this year would be more so the year over the others,” said 23XI driver Tyler Reddick said. “But for me, it’s just the fact that year after year, he’s as strong as he is — where he is in the regular season, where he is in the win column.
“If you do that consistently every year, you’re going to keep putting yourself in the position to battle for a championship.”
Tyler Reddick will be competing against boss Denny Hamlin for the 2025 championship.
The team ownership hasn’t impacted his performance. And it doesn’t appear the ongoing contentious antitrust lawsuit between 23XI and NASCAR has impacted Hamlin on the track.
Depending on the ruling as a result of a hearing Thursday on whether 23XI can resume being a chartered team, Hamlin could face the possibility that his drivers are free agents because he can’t provide them a charter.
That doesn’t mean they will leave, but Reddick is considered one of the top young talents in the sport, and other teams are ready to make offers.
“I’ve got to stay focused on the playoffs and the races ahead of us,” said Reddick, one of two winless drivers to make the playoffs on points. “This has been a tough year, and it’s really going to be important getting this playoffs started on the right foot.
“I’m just staying focused on being in the 45 and trying to put together a good first round that’ll hopefully get our momentum turned around.”
Hamlin was succinct if he was worried about the impact of the lawsuit on his driver and sponsor lineup.
“I have absolutely zero concern about the lawsuit,” he said Wednesday, a day before the hearing Thursday. “I know the facts.”
On the track, the facts are that he hasn’t won a championship. He has shown he has been one of the top drivers this year. So once again, is this the year? Hamlin wonders if his time will come in a year where he hasn’t run as well.
“I feel like that would be the year that we win — is the one where we get lucky and get to the final four and win,” Hamlin said. “We’ve been so confident for the last couple decades with our speed and the racetracks and how it sets up for us
“But ultimately, the speed at times hasn’t mattered because of the execution. Maybe one time — one time — we’ll get lucky.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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