Could this finally be the year Denny Hamlin delivers his first NASCAR Cup Series title? Tribulations with the Next Gen car forecasted a dim outlook for the driver of the No. 11 in 2022, but it appears he could be catching fire – and collecting reinforcements – at the perfect time.
With only 10 top-10s through 29 races, it’s safe to say this has been far from Hamlin’s best campaign. Although he found sporadic success in the form of two regular-season victories, the traditional dominance hasn’t been there.
To be fair, dominance, in general, has been hard to come by with the newest iteration of NASCAR’s seventh-generation stock car, but struggles tend to get magnified for someone of Hamlin’s stature. As has been the case for most veterans in the NASCAR Cup Series, it’s been difficult for Hamlin to adapt to the vehicle.
In a span of two months, the car’s flaws have been on full display with parts failures, random fires, and impacts that have led to injury – which Hamlin experienced firsthand after a wreck at Daytona International Speedway, and from an ownership perspective as Kurt Busch continues to be sidelined with concussion-like symptoms following a crash at Pocono Raceway.
Now 41 years old and in the waning stages of his 17th full-time campaign and second year as a co-owner of 23XI Racing, Hamlin has become an intuitive ambassador for the sport. He couldn’t help but take to Twitter following the conclusion of a chaotic Round of 16.
We need NextGen 2.0. Just gotta figure out who’s gonna pay for it.
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) September 18, 2022
“We just need another version of [the Next Gen car],” Hamlin told The Circuit Journal. “You don’t need a complete rebuild, but certainly, this car needs some work done to it – which most cars do when they initially come out. I guess NASCAR hasn’t been reacting as fast as we would like to see them.”
NASCAR caught the ire of former champions Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex Jr. after a slew of mechanical failures prevented both race wins and advancements from the opening round. For Hamlin, the Next Gen model of teams being issued common parts isn’t the issue, but rather the quality of the products and the lack of initiative to right these wrongs.
“You’re going to have to rely on the teams to help develop it because there’s just not enough people at NASCAR to be able to tackle all the things that we’re fighting,” Hamlin said. “We’ve made alterations to the car that weren’t planned to try to band-aid it, but how could we go ahead and get these teams involved? They’ve got the smartest engineers of anyone out there, so let them be part of the design process.”
The good news for Hamlin, even with the sluggish regular-season effort and mayhem-filled Round of 16, he was able to avoid elimination and actually asserted himself as one of the best drivers in the opening round of the playoffs.
Not only was Hamlin one of three drivers to place top-10 in each race in the Round of 16, but he also scored two runner-up finishes and amassed a 4.3 average result – second-best to his teammate Christopher Bell. However, the next three-race set figures to be even more hectic than the opener, with tracks like Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval looming.
The game plan for Hamlin going forward is simple: strive for consistency and build up stage points.
“For myself, personally, it’s going to be about qualifying well, getting stage points, and then not messing up on pit road,” Hamlin said. “If we can do those things, we’re gonna make the final eight, and then we’ll win our way into the final four from there.”
Hamlin knows he’s still at a disadvantage in the Round of 12 due to his lack of playoff points built up throughout the regular season. He anticipates that top-five runs with stage points earned will be enough for him to advance into the semi-final set.
As for Hamlin’s biggest threat to his first title, that would be himself. Far too often has he seen victories slip away due to a series-high 34 pit road miscues through 29 races.
Following Kyle Busch’s early exit from the playoffs, it was announced Hamlin would be inheriting the No. 18 pit crew. This should be a massive shot in the arm for the driver of the No. 11, as Racing Insights ranked his new crew second overall in average four-tire pit stop times.
“I mean, we needed something to spark us, for sure,” Hamlin said. “It’s the last stop for us that has kind of been the Achilles heel. It kept us from winning a lot of races, and JGR felt like it was the best way for us to get a quick result.
“You’re going to have to bring your best if you’re going to make it and win a championship. Statistically, the 18 team is the best at JGR, so they felt like it was the best opportunity for us to win.”
This is the same pit crew that has consistently completed stops in the nine-second range and won the pole for their driver in the All-Star Race earlier this year. Perhaps the most significant perk for the 41-year-old is the sense of familiarity.
The revered leader and jackman Kellen Mills, and rear tire changer Lee Cunningham worked with Hamlin the last few years before swapping teams in 2022. In addition to their herculean efforts this season, the pair of crew members guided the No. 18 team and Daniel Hemric to a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship last November.
Hamlin will look to forge his path into the Round of 8, beginning with the AutoTrader EchoPark 500 from Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
