Denny Hamlin offers blunt verdict on NASCAR Cup | Sports News

Since first going full-time within the NASCAR Cup Series in 2006, Denny Hamlin has come within touching distance of a championship on quite a few events, reaching the Playoffs on 19 events, ending within the prime 5 in factors in eight out of the final 20 seasons.

Despite getting into the Playoffs as this season’s joint winningest driver within the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, with each he and Shane van Gisbergen – for whom Hamlin does not have high hopes within the Playoffs – having reached victory lane on 4 events, Hamlin is remaining grounded in his expectations, maybe after having been burned too many instances earlier than.

Asked why 2025 could possibly be his 12 months to lastly win his first Cup title, the 44-year-old responded merely, “Because it’s just another year,” as per Bob Pockrass. “For 20 years, I’ve tried to give an explanation of why one year is different than the other, but truthfully, they’re not different. 

“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 of whether the things we can’t control keep us from competing or not. 

“I mean, mistakes will be a big factor. Do I make any mistakes? I don’t know, it’s all yet to be seen. Can you execute, and if we execute at the left turn tracks, we’re fast enough to go all the way.”

The 2025 season has been one other largely robust one throughout the board for the No. 11, barring his latest run of underwhelming outcomes at Iowa, Watkins Glen, and Daytona, all of which noticed Hamlin end outdoors of the highest 20.

Speaking with reporters in Charlotte forward of the Playoff opener on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, Hamlin mentioned he felt his workforce’s strengths have been “just conventional ovals. Anything that turns left is going to be our strength.”

All 4 of Hamlin’s wins this season have come on ovals (Martinsville, Michigan, Darlington, Dover), whereas he additionally racked up top-five finishes at Phoenix, Homestead-Miami, Bristol, Nashville, Pocono, and Indianapolis.

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He felt that the No. 11 workforce is in a “unique position” in that he believes his car is persistently one of the 4 or 5 quickest automobiles week in, week out. 

“It’s just, do you have enough of a head start through your Playoff points and whatnot to keep moving on?” Hamlin mentioned. “Do you have enough to sustain a bad day that everyone has during the course of a season? 

“The challenge will be obviously Talladega. I don’t think I’ve avoided a superspeedway wreck in about 10 years now – or it feels that way. And then, what happens at the Roval, right? 

“There are so many different strategies and stuff that can happen. What points position are you in before you get to there? A lot of that will be dictated in the first couple races of that round.”

The Roval is set to host the ultimate race within the Round of 12 on October fifth, with highway course maestro van Gisbergen within the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet a secure guess to win, having already made it to victory lane in 4 of 5 highway races this season.

As for Talladega, the place Hamlin completed twenty first back in April and has not gained since 2020, that can play host to the second of three Round of 8 races on October nineteenth.