Denny Hamlin is ‘Racing Himself’ for the 2026 Cup Championship

Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin is having one of the very best seasons of his racing career, as he is leading the 2026 championship with a point advantage against Tyler Reddick. He has won four races so far this season, including a three-peat and it is going to be hard to march the No:11 team as they have pace advantage as well.

The veteran’s biggest challenger, Reddick, is using the feedback and race note of the JGR racer. Hamlin is the co-owner of the No:45 drivers 23xI Racing team and is significantly involved in the car development side. Talking about it, the veteran admitted that he feels like he is racing himself for the title this year.

It really is [fun], and I feel like I’m racing myself, truthfully, because, you know, I’ve given those guys so many plays out of the playbook, and I’m racing against it.

Denny Hamlin said at Chicagoland.

Further talking about the point, Denny Hamlin pointed out that at the moment the 23XI Racing cars are really fast, just like his JGR Camry, making them equal. The only advantage the No:11 team has had over the last two months where they have performer better is the execution factor. They racer that makes the least number of mistakes will be the Bill France Cup winner at the end of the season.

Their cars are really, really fast, and that’s what’s going to make this fun down the stretch is that, you know, we know we’re all equal. It’s just a matter of who can go out there and execute.

Denny Hamlin added.

Denny Hamlin secured an extremely lucky pole at Chicagoland

The No:11 team had the best start to the week they could have to get back to winning ways, after the two tough road course races, by winning the pole on Sunday. He beat rival Kyle Larson with 0.001s advantage and admitted it was a lucky break, as he got a colder track which is faster.

I’ll be honest with you; I got extremely lucky. Anyone that goes out right now beats me. I’m very confident in that. We got lucky that these last 12 guys just got stuck in the sun. And the track definitely is a very temperature-sensitive track. It gets a little bit of sun on it, and it just slows way up.

Denny Hamlin said, reported via On3.com.

Further talking about the point, the veteran racer admitted that he was lucky that he got the opportunity run early on the day. The veteran is really impressed with contribution from his team as well, considering a top-10 qualifying wasn’t on his wish list on Saturday.

I think we got really fortunate there with the timing of that. And we hit our lap pretty decent considering where we went out. So really happy with the result there of the whole progressive team. And we’ll definitely start from there. My goal was P12 today.

Denny Hamlin added.

The comments from the three times Daytona 500 champion are on point and shows how he is determined to take advantage of the lucky momentum from the qualifying. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver on Sunday.

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