Analysis: For Denny Hamlin, Kansas presents the good and the bad
There was a lot to like about Denny Hamlin’s performance at Dover Motor Speedway last weekend. There was also a lot to dislike. Your chosen viewpoint from that race depends on one thing — what you were watching.
If your eyes were on the track watching Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry consistently carve through the field and run up front, you would (rightfully) be impressed by a day at the track that netted a fifth-place finish, the fourth top-five of the year for the veteran.
If your eyes were watching pit road, you would (rightfully) think the No. 11 wasn’t as sharp as NASCAR fans have grown accustomed to over the past several years.
Long a hallmark of the JGR powerhouse, pit-road performance has now plagued the 42-year-old driver through the first third of the 2023 season.
“We‘re a year or so behind on our choreograph by going back to the old style,” Hamlin told FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass, referencing the team abandoning its intricate pit-road choreography on the Next Gen car and reverting to a more standard approach.
“That‘s not what‘s causing our 20-second pit stop at Richmond when you‘re leading, our 20-second stop at the end here (at Dover). All those just add up. You just can‘t win races that way. You‘re asking too much of me and the team to have to make that up. Unfortunately we had a really fast FedEx Camry that kept driving to the front, but every time a caution came out it was a 90 percent chance we‘re going backward.”
That‘s no hyperbole. In fact, at Dover at least, Hamlin was giving his pit crew the benefit of the doubt with his 90 percent comment.
According to Racing Insights, the No. 11 car pitted seven times at the 1-mile concrete oval. Three were under green-flag conditions. Four came under caution, when most cars were pitting and when the ability to gain or lose positions on pit road was at its peak.
The No. 11 car lost ground on all four of those pit stops, dropping a total of 11 positions. That includes a brutal 30-second stop on Lap 389 of the 400-lap race.
Lap | Time | + / - |
|---|---|---|
23 | 10.276 seconds | -2 |
86 | 12.144 seconds | -3 |
124 | 12.745 seconds | Green |
191 | 10.309 seconds | -2 |
254 | 11.944 seconds | Green |
329 | 10.410 seconds | Green |
389 | 30.858 seconds | -4 |
The good news for the No. 11 group, though, is that the series heads to Kansas Speedway this weekend (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Few are as good there as Hamlin.
His three wins at Kansas are tied for the most all time at the track with Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Jeff Gordon.
Hamlin was one of seven drivers to finish in the top 10 in both Kansas races last year, and one of just two — alongside teammate Christopher Bell — to notch two top fives. His average finish of 3.0 in the Sunflower State last year was best in the series.
STANDINGS: Hamlin currently seventh
He enters this year‘s race having run 2,262 laps (76% of all laps run) in the top 10 this year, the best rate in the series and nearly 400 more laps than second-place William Byron.
It’s evident that Hamlin will likely have the car, and certainly the mile-and-a-half driving skills, to compete for a victory Sunday.
What happens on pit road will go a long way toward putting Hamlin in position to capture his 49th career Cup Series win — or forcing him to try and drive through the field and make up ground.
