Denny Hamlin Predicts A “Wild Card Race” at Darlington

The NASCAR Cup Series race last Sunday at Phoenix was both chaotic and entertaining. The first ever pure oval race since the increase in horsepower, proved the sport made the right call as racer was able pass much more efficiently on the track. Joe Gibbs Racinh veteran Denny Hamlin expects this change to have massive ramification two weeks from now at Darlington.

Talking about the upcoming race weeks on his podcast, after the new racing dynamic he witnessed at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin gave the fans a warning. The Las Vegas Cup race next Sunday will be similar to the Straight Talk Wireless 500 race, but the Darlington race the week after will be interesting. He gave the community a heads up about how the cars are going to be out of control.

It’s going to be a small incremental change. Again, the small change, what was the racing truly better this time around? Was it 10 percent maybe? I mean 15 percent, but it’s something. And so, I think you’ll see that same change at other racetracks. One thing I will tell you is that heads up on Darlington, you want to see some cars out of control here in a few weeks.

Denny Hamlin said on his podcast.

Further talking about the point, the three times Daytona 500 champion gave the reasoning for his prediction. Denny Hamlin pointed out that the cars will be out of control due to the underbody and aero package for the weekend. He believes there is a lot of uncertainty over how challenging the race week is going to be.

These cars, with essentially little to no underbody because we’re now going to the short track aerodynamic package for Darlington, these cars are out of control. I’m predicting four seconds of fall off, it might be more. It’s just the cars with the underbody taken off and that simple diffuser, just even on new tires, just absolutely out of control. So, it’s going to be a wild card race.

Denny Hamlin asserted via Actions Detrimental.

Denny Hamlin explains the reason for Goodyear tire failure at Phoenix

In the same podcast, Hamlin talked about one of the biggest factors that affected teams on last Sunday. The tire pressure gamble from the teams caused some wild moments, that forced the manufacturer to bluntly remind them that they advised them to use a specific tire pressure for a reason.

The JGR veteran admitted that the teams were pushing the pressure game to the edge to find little advantages that will make them fast in the long-run. But the experiments were too much for the race day unlike the practice session and it cost them some big point paying finishes.

It’s the teams. We’re just pushing it. We certainly know that the more that you lower the air pressure the faster you’re going to be on the long run. And these teams just keep pushing it. So what they do is they get somewhat comfortable in practice, they run the first run of the race, see where things are, and then all the sudden they’re like, ‘All right, well let me take another tenth or two out of the tire.’ And that’s when it … it’s that close.

Denny Hamlin said.

But it won’t stop the teams from making such moves again, as in the Next-Gen era, even a small advantage will have massive impact. It would be interesting to see how the tire pressure drama is going to playout in the coming races.

Also Read: “Just Can’t Emphasize Enough!” Brad Keselowski Impressed with Michael Jordan’s NASCAR Commitment

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