Only 36 factors separate the 16 drivers as NASCAR‘s playoffs start Sunday at Darlington Raceway in what is perhaps one of many closest fields within the historical past of this format.
After so many near-misses, is it lastly Denny Hamlin‘s 12 months?
“It is all the time my 12 months,” Hamlin stated with a large grin Thursday.
Confidence is sweet however it has but to repay for Hamlin, who cannot shake the tag as the best NASCAR driver to by no means win a Cup Collection title.
Oh, he is gained the Daytona 500, 3 times in reality. He is tied for thirteenth on the profession victory checklist with 50, solely behind two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch and one-time Cup champion Kevin Harvick for many amongst lively drivers. Hamlin has gained the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500, the Bristol evening race and each crown jewel on the NASCAR schedule. His Southern 500 win at Darlington in 2021 made Hamlin certainly one of solely 4 drivers – becoming a member of Corridor of Famers Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and Jeff Gordon – to win the Southern 500 and Daytona 500 3 times every.
However Hamlin hasn’t been in a position to shut out a title regardless of a minimum of 5 probabilities over 18 seasons. He is been to the winner-take-all finale 4 completely different occasions, and misplaced to seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson just about head-to-head within the 2010 championship race.
A 12 months in the past, Ross Chastain’s eye-popping video-game fashion transfer to crash into the wall and let the momentum of the impression carry him by the ultimate lap at Martinsville eradicated Hamlin from the championship race. Chastain completed second to Cup champion Joey Logano the following week.
However on this 12 months of parity – six drivers are within the playoff area who did not make it final 12 months – the margins are razor skinny. William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports and Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, are tied for the factors lead headed into the primary of 10 playoff races. 4 drivers shall be eradicated after each third race, resulting in a four-driver winner-take-all showdown at Phoenix on Nov. 5.
Chase Elliott didn’t make the playoff area this 12 months
Bubba Wallace, who drives for Hamlin and Michael Jordan at 23XI Racing, is sixteenth within the standings however solely 36 factors behind the co-leaders. He hasn’t scored a playoff level all 12 months. Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hasn’t scored a playoff level since his victory within the season-opening race.
Chase Elliott, the 2020 champion and NASCAR’s hottest driver, didn’t make the playoff area this 12 months and former champions Harvick and Brad Keselowski head into the postseason winless to date.
Hamlin, in the meantime, has two wins and is third within the standings. He trails the leaders by simply 11 factors and sees no cause why 2023 is not the 12 months he lastly claims a Cup title.
“I believe that we’re stronger than we have ever been. Street programs, I’ve obtained pace now, and brief tracks our automobiles – if we get to the ultimate 4, I am not frightened about being at a deficit,” Hamlin stated. “I believe the pit crew is healthier, they’re coming into its personal. All of the items of the puzzle are there. There isn’t any excuses for positive.”
Hamlin is after all juggling two very huge off-track items that might in the end be a distraction. He is in a contract 12 months with Joe Gibbs, who final 12 months let two-time champion Kyle Busch go away for Richard Childress Racing, and his Toyota contract with 23XI Racing additionally must be renewed. 23XI obtained each its automobiles into the playoffs with Wallace and Tyler Reddick, and, if Hamlin does not drive outright for 23XI subsequent 12 months, he must be with a crew that has the identical producer because the one he owns.
He was filled with one-liners Thursday as he tried to keep away from getting drawn right into a dialogue about his future.
“I’ve obtained plenty of irons within the hearth,” he stated about every little thing he is juggling professionally.
However is he nearer to finishing a cope with JGR?
“I haven’t got something new to announce. I am not making an attempt to leak a technique or one other, it is on to Darlington.”
Does he need to stick with Gibbs?
“100%.”
Has he began exploring choices if he cannot return to Gibbs?
“See that is a play on phrases. That is not good. I’ve a race crew. I all the time have choices. In the event you’re only a driver, you’re on the mercy of whoever will rent you. I’ll rent me.”
So might 23XI develop subsequent season to offer the boss a journey?
“I imply, if an apocalypse comes, yeah.”
Truex, the common season champion, is the FanDuel favourite to win a second title and believes his hardest competitors is his JGR teammates Hamlin and Christopher Bell. A 12 months in the past, Bell gained two elimination races to advance all the way in which to the ultimate.
“Loads can occur within the playoffs, which we now have seen prior to now, we simply have to fret about ourselves and be constant and attempt to execute and we shall be fantastic,” Truex stated. “The opposite guys – (Hamlin and Bell) are quick. It’s all the time robust to race together with your teammates, since you all have the identical factor and also you share every little thing through the week, so how one can you discover that further little bit.”
Keselowski, who missed the playoffs final 12 months in his first season as part-owner of rebranded RFK Racing, is again within the area alongside teammate Chris Buescher. He does not suppose the Ford drivers – and that features reigning champ Logano, his Staff Penske teammate Ryan Blaney and retiring Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing – have the pace to contend for the title and Truex and picked Truex as his favourite.
Busch, in the meantime, would love to offer RCR its seventh Cup title in his first season with the crew. RCR gained all six of its championships with the late Dale Earnhardt, and none since 1994. He has three wins this season and believes a shot at making the ultimate 4.
“I do not care what crew I am at, I will go attempt to win a championship,” Busch stated. “However to have the historical past and the legacy of RCR and every little thing that they’ve executed through the years with Earnhardt Sr., – yeah, it has been a bit of quiet currently, however that may be good to shake that up.”
However then there’s Byron, the category of the Hendrick Motorsports area that features 2021 champion Kyle Larson. He is been the winningest driver this season, and of his 9 profession victories, 5 are at tracks which are within the playoffs.
Byron has gained at Darlington, Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Martinsville and Phoenix.
“It is good to know that plenty of the tracks line up nicely for us. It is a comforting factor to know that,” he stated. “However I do not need to suppose too far forward and get too enthusiastic about Vegas and even Phoenix, as a result of we’re not there but. So we have to get there first and hopefully this primary spherical goes clean and we do not have too many complications at evening and may get by it.”
