Analysis: Keeping poise, understanding pedigree the name of the game for Denny Hamlin
DOVER, Del. — The circuits were waning, and Kyle Larson was gaining. During the final laps of Sunday’s Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway, Larson closed the gaps between his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Hamlin’s already-thin 0.60-plus second lead over the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion with approximately 20 laps to go quickly diminished to an even thinner 0.347 seconds with 11 laps remaining.
The picture between the pair has played out in a similar fashion numerous times. And who could expect anything less? One former champion (Larson) vs. a driver with Hall of Fame-caliber credentials fighting for his first championship (Hamlin). Title-winning moves are made during the regular season, so they say, and both drivers were looking to cast one of those stones at the famed Monster Mile.
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And during a campaign when both drivers will fight tooth and nail for the coveted Bill France Cup, the Delaware round went to Hamlin, who outlasted Larson by 0.256 seconds to claim his third Cup triumph of the season.
“It’s very satisfying because I was really looking forward to Texas (Motor Speedway),” Hamlin said. “When Kyle Larson was dominating the first half, I knew what kind of car I was going to have in the second half. He had a wheel problem. Man, I can’t race him straight up. We’ve had a lot of late-race battles. So, to get the better end of it certainly feels good on my end. I mean, he’s one of the best. The record proves it. The amount of wins he’s got since being over there, it speaks for itself. I mean, as old as I am, I’m just happy I can keep up at this point. But then to be a challenger to those guys who are half my age, it’s fun.”
With both drivers combining for three wins, six top fives, seven top 10s and 930 laps led this year heading into Dover, early indications were that both would — more than likely — be in contention once again entering the race weekend. And while Larson started Sunday’s race in 21st compared to Hamlin’s sixth, there was no denying the No. 5’s capabilities to quickly work back to the field’s front.
And that’s exactly what happened. Stage 1 concluded with Larson and Hamlin finishing fifth and sixth, respectively, with the former also being the first of the pair to lead laps, spanning from Lap 219 to Lap 253, attributing to a Stage 2 win (Hamlin finished third). Hamlin was next to draw blood, with a savvy three-wide sandwich with Larson and Alex Bowman culminating with a victory off pit road to begin the race’s final stage. And while Larson briefly reclaimed the lead on Lap 325, Hamlin’s speed proved to be electric enough to pull ahead once again.
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Chris Gabehart, crew chief for the No. 11, understood the complete effort it took from the entire No. 11 team to overcome Larson and, perhaps equally as important, to help rebound from two consecutive finishes outside the top 30, spanning from Texas (30th) and Talladega Superspeedway (37th).
“In today’s NASCAR racing, to win a race at the Cup level, you have to have it all,” Gabehart said. “You have to have it all, nearly every lap of it. There’s no other form of motorsports where it’s this tight, where you literally have to have it all and then some, a little bit of fortune to go along with it. Texas we had multiple chances to win the race, didn’t get that fortune, cautions didn’t go our way.
“This team definitely has all the makings of it. Denny is doing a phenomenal job as a driver. The car, the new Toyota Camry’s really given us a lot to work with. Everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing is really pulling the rope and excited to win races. I just can’t say enough about our pit crew and all the work they’ve went through. Everybody here at the race track with the 11 car, week in and week out, just how much fun we’re having doing this. That’s what it takes. That’s what it takes to win races. Winning races wins championships. Really, that’s all the 11 is focused on, is winning races.”
Winning races, not to mention football games back in the day, is something Joe Gibbs knows all too well. And to the 83-year-old coach and team owner, the 43-year-old Hamlin has shown a veteran poise that equates to race-winning success.
“I’m really thrilled with where Denny is,” Gibbs said. “Chris, he was talking about it. At this point in his career, for him to be after it the way he is, he’s in there with Chris, he’s in the simulator. He’s improved at a couple places where he felt like he was off. He took it upon himself in road racing. I got to tell you, in pro sports, it’s hard to get it all together. I think this team, the 11 team, with Chris’ leadership, really right now I feel so comfortable going to the race track. That’s hard to get. Just appreciate all of our guys. In this sport, we know it’s all really different. You got to have four teams working together to solve the problems. Then, when you get to the race track, it’s everybody on their own trying to win it.”
Lengthy green-flag runs late in the race were briefly sprinkled with a pair of cautions (with one of them including a JGR teammate in Christopher Bell), but Hamlin never wavered. Neither did Larson. And with an early-season champion-caliber primer between the pair coming down to the wire, it was Hamlin who eventually overcame a surging No. 5 to take the checkered flag.
The confetti flew. The pit crew celebrated. The crowd remained vibrant. But for Hamlin, the victory wasn’t his first rodeo — his Dover victory netted him his 54th in the Cup Series, which tied him with Lee Petty for 12th all-time.
Hamlin understands his pedigree, and he more than knows the significance of “pushing to the absolute edge” in order to optimize his shot at winning against a championship competitor willing to put it all on the line to win. As a four-time Championship 4 driver, Hamlin also understands that every chance for a Cup Series crown matters.
But simply winning at its base level matters, too. And Hamlin lets it be known, from his wheeling and dealing on the track to confident chuckling after the fact.
“Listen, I know that I’m a championship-caliber driver. I’ll just say it,” Hamlin said. “I think there’s been worse drivers to win a championship than me. I just feel that way just because of things that have worked out. It’s different. Find one driver saying that championships are the same as they were 10 years ago. It’s just not. I care about wins and winning every single week because, in the end, I absolutely would take 60-some wins and no championship over 20 and one. It’s just not even close. I just think it’s fun to be able to do it. When you can do it against someone that you really consider a big challenger in Kyle Larson — he’s a champion, not a challenger. I’m probably the challenger. I think it certainly helps your ego a little bit. Like I need that.”
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Such battles involving Hamlin are bound to continue, and look no further than the upcoming AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Hamlin has four career Cup wins and, coincidentally, bumped past one No. 5 driver to tally that most recent win nearly one year ago on the dot.
Hamlin’s championship-style clashes during the regular season will not cease. More stones will be cast. And perhaps more satisfaction will come, too.
