Kyle Larson heaps pressure on Denny Hamlin after – Sports News
The pressure is on Denny Hamlin after his landmark sixtieth NASCAR Cup Series profession victory on the South Point 400 in Las Vegas, not solely tying Kevin Harvick because the tenth winningest driver in historical past, but additionally changing into the primary driver this season to secure one of 4 Playoff spots within the Championship race.
Hamlin’s emotional newest win got here on the expense of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe, whom he overtook with simply 4 laps remaining, and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who led a field-high 129 laps on Sunday.
Following the checkered flag, Larson, who’s presently second within the Playoff image, 35 factors above the cutoff line, piled the pressure onto Hamlin when he singled out the 44-year-old as the present championship favourite.
“The 11 is the only one guaranteed in right now. So he would be the favorite,” he informed Bob Pockrass, though Larson remained optimistic with the short monitor at Martinsville nonetheless to go.
“But, hopefully, we can get in there because I do feel like, that’s an area where we have closed the gap a lot to them and maybe surpassed JGR on our flat track program. Iowa went well. New Hampshire was good. Richmond was better than we typically are. So, yeah, I think we’re getting better.”
Larson could consider that it is all Hamlin’s to lose at this second in time, however so far as he’s involved, there’s no cause to really feel nervous at this stage in his profession, even when this might show his closing struggle for a title.
“Truthfully, I don’t get nervous anymore, but I will at some point, it will kick in where it’s like, ‘Is this my last chance to do it?’” Hamlin informed reporters post-race. “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but I just know that I’m going to do it, do the work, and I hope it works out.
“If it doesn’t, I’m gonna be okay with it. I’ve had a season that far exceeded what I thought it would. But yeah, I mean, it’ll set in. I’ll get nervous, certainly, over the next few weeks about it, but I’m going to be nervous about the things that I control, not the other things.
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“You guys have seen it. There’s been weird and crazy things that have kept me from winning a title or advancing to have a chance to, and I’ve said many times, if you get enough chances, eventually the tides will turn, and it’s like, did they start turning today? Maybe.”
Locked into the title race in Phoenix, Hamlin can flip his consideration to chasing down Kyle Busch within the all-time win leaderboard over the subsequent two races at Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway.
Currently, Busch is ninth all-time with 63 wins, and it appears unlikely he’ll be including to this whole any time quickly as he continues to endure one other rollercoaster season with Richard Childress Racing, together with an eighth-place end in Vegas.
Since 2005, Hamlin has reached victory lane at Talladega simply twice, most not too long ago in 2020, whereas he already has six wins at Martinsville to his identify, together with earlier this season within the Cook Out 400.
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