Mr. Tire Manager Denny Hamlin humbles the field at Bristol to secure 52nd career triumph

Denny Hamlin secured back-to-back victories at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Mr. Tire Manager Denny Hamlin humbles the field at Bristol to secure 52nd career triumph

Denny Hamlin and No:11 Crew celebrating Bristol Cup race win (Via IMAGO)

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol on Sunday took fans back to the good old days, where the drivers made the difference. Track positions and hard to pass conversations was nowhere to be seen as drivers turned their focus to controlling the surprisingly significant tire wear due to the new wheel that was given to racers by Goodyear.

Denny Hamlin, one of the senior drivers on the grid, held of fellow veteran and teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the final laps to secure his 52nd career win and the fourth at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was also back-to-back victory for Hamlin as he had won the 500 miles race at the last great colosseum in 2023 as well.

Toyota had the fastest car, like they did last week at Phoenix, on Sunday. With the extensive tire wear drivers have to focus on short-run and the speed advantage helped them to make the tires last longer and pit late. NO:54 JGR driver Ty Gibbs won the first stages and fought valiantly, but wasn’t fast enough to catch Hamlin at the end.

He was able to secure just a P9 finish, one spot ahead of his teammate Christopher Bell. Kevin Harvick predicted before the race that Hamlin would win and fortunately it came true after Truex Jr. didn’t have enough tires left to push had on the final laps. One surpassing fact that shows how good the top-5 was today is that barring them, no one finished inside the lead laps. The last time such limited number of drivers finished the race out-side the lead lap was two decades ago.

Experience paid of for Denny Hamlin on Sunday

Over the years, tire wear started to become less of an issue for driver, especially in the Next-Gen era. So, most of the garage will eventually struggle due to a lack of proper understanding about how to tackle the situation. Hamlin on the other hand had no issues as he had his experience to bank on and score wins.

Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin (Credits: Imago)
Yeah, experience was a big part of it for sure. I was trying not to get pushed so much by Ty (Gibbs). I knew he was going to push a little too hard. Obviously, I knew Martin (Truex Jr.) was going to be the next guy in line that had the experience to challenge. Really proud of the team. Obviously, a really great job on the pit sequence there. Being able to hang on longer than others was the key to us being able to stop later and have some tires at the end.
Hamlin told Fox Sports.

The Key to Hamlin’s victory was his tire management and how late he was able to make the final pit-stop which gave him the opportunity push hard. The tire change has proven to be the solution to Next-Gen cars’ short track racing problem and NASCAR should be exploring this path in the coming short track events of the year.

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