“We’re dangerous,” Denny Hamlin insists that he is a championship contender after a “frustrating year” of racing
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Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin’s 2022 season has been a unique one as the veteran has been the worst and best driver on the track more than once in the season. Denny Hamlin, who secured the greatest number of wins for the TRD team, is only the fourth best driver in the Joe Gibbs Racing contingent in terms of championship points secured, which is a testament to the roller coaster of a season he had.
Alongside the two wins, Hamlin has only 5 top 10 finishes and has a disappointing ten finishes outside the top 20 so far this season. The poor form of runs the veteran had has to do with either he or the No:11 JGR team messing up the races. Though the veterans showed signs of resurgence in the second half of the season, the inconsistency still follows him, though this time, it has more to do with his bad luck.
This inconsistency is the main reason why the NASCAR community is in doubt about labeling the veteran as a championship contender. However, he is one of the great drivers of the 21st century that even without a cup championship win. Now Denny Hamlin himself has come forth expressing his opinion that he and the No:11 team will be contenders in the postseason.
Find out what Denny Hamlin said
Denny Hamlin acknowledged that they are going to be dangerous in the playoffs if the playoff schedule lends itself nicely to them. He added that his chances would depend upon his finishes in the top 15 on the tracks where they have previously finished outside the top 20 and without stage wins.
“We’re dangerous because I think the playoff schedule lends itself nicely to us. Now, there are two to three racetracks in that playoff where we’re like, ‘Ugh, we need to find a way to just kind of run 15th those races and just not have the races where we run 20th to 25th and not get any stage points.’ Like, get me 30 points on that day,” Denny Hamlin said.
Denny Hamlin went on to say that it would be frustrating for him if he had average finishes in the first couple of races and then fail to get into the top on tracks where they don’t usually get the pace needed to win. He added that if the races play out like that, then they will struggle as they have to care for cut-off spots due to the lack of stage points they acquired this season due to DQ or missed executions.
“It will be frustrating if we’re kind of average — kind of good the first couple of races, and then we get to a track where we know we’re not going to be good at, and there’s nothing we can do [because] we just don’t have the speed. That will be frustrating. Now also, it’s going to be frustrating because we’ve left an enormous amount of playoff [points] on the table from DQs [Pocono] to lack of execution, giving our opponents playoff points that we know we’re going to be racing for cut-off spots. So, it’s been on us,” Denny Hamlin added.
Denny Hamlin went on to say that he never imagined that they would be getting this many wins this season in the Next-Gen car and added that he also didn’t expect himself to run this bad when they were having a poor day at the track.
“…So, I think we certainly have been optimistic about that and never thought we’d have the chance to win as many races in the first year of this car. And none of us thought we were going to run this bad when we do run badly,” Denny Hamlin added.
Denny Hamlin is not just carrying the burden of getting his No:11 Camry to the victory lane he also has his own outfit, 23X1 Racing to look after, which puts him in a tricky situation. Being the professional and racer he is, the veteran still has what it takes to make a comeback and set himself nicely to secure a championship he has been longing for a long time.
Is Denny Hamlin a championship contender this season?
Also read: “Who you going to BLAME this week,” NASCAR Twitter reacts to Bubba Wallace’s Road course admission
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Justin P Joy
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