Denny Hamlin hits Homestead set to build on momentum in chase for elusive title

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — After winning at Bristol Motor Speedway back in September, Denny Hamlin famously said 2023 is “our year” to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Only three races remain in this year’s postseason, and the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota still believes — with plenty of good reason. Hamlin, a 51-time winner at NASCAR’s highest level, has won three times this year, his most since a seven-win campaign in 2020. He’s had top-five level speed in five of the seven races in the NASCAR Playoffs and sits two points above the provisional elimination line heading into Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Cup Series Playoffs standings | Homestead-Miami schedule

But Hamlin, now an 18-year veteran, has been close to title glory before. He’s advanced to the Championship 4 in three of the past four years. So while he is confident the No. 11 team is primed for a championship run, he cautions that nothing is for granted as seven drivers fight for the three remaining spots in this year’s title hunt.

“As long as we keep our fate in our own hands, I feel as though it’s a good opportunity for us — probably one of the best opportunities that we’ve had,” Hamlin told NASCAR.com in a Friday teleconference. “The competition doesn’t care about that, though. If they blow a tire with five (laps) to go and we go from dominating a race to losing it on a green-white-checkered because we pitted or whatever, they don’t care. They don’t care about what you are trying to accomplish. They’re just trying to race their own race. So it’s a weird sport in that sense.

“So while things, you can feel, are in your favor, and you feel as though each week, you’ve been one of the top contenders, the format doesn’t care and they can knock you out pretty quickly.”

The past two weeks, momentum has cooled ever so slightly for Hamlin, the result of a frustrating race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course that left him crashed out with a last-place DNF before a 10th-place run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, second-to-last of the remaining eight playoff drivers. Having the hot hand is a plus, but it’s not everything, Hamlin believes.

“There’s a little balance of it,” Hamlin said. “Does it fully matter? No. It still can be week-to-week. You can still run last one week, and win the next week. But certainly, as far as kind of mojo and feeling good about where you’re at and not second-guessing some decisions that you make, yes, momentum definitely matters as far as that is concerned. So I do feel good about it.

“While last week was a little bump in the road and some people would love 10th or whatever we finished, that’s certainly below our average and what we expect week in and week out. So I think that we’ve identified kind of where our hiccup was that weekend and now we just put it to the past and move on to Homestead where, again, we’ve had a great track record and I feel good about the feel I need out of the car there.”

Indeed his track record at Homestead is impressive, the site of three of those 51 career victories. In fact, Hamlin has netted multiple wins at each of the remaining tracks on the schedule, including Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway. Past success does not guarantee future results, but Hamlin knows what he needs out of the car at each facility, even in the Next Gen car.

“If you can win multiple times at a track, it means whatever you’re feeling or whatever you’re wanting out of the car, that has been good enough to win,” Hamlin said. “And while the car has changed over the last year and a half or more, I’m working my way to knocking out some of these wins at those very familiar tracks again, which means that the feel is still right, even though we’ve got a new car.

“So it does give you a little confidence as far as that’s concerned that you know what you’re doing is right. But yeah, I think that these tracks are super good for us. And I know a lot will be said about, ‘Well, this person has won here many, many times.’ I mean, some of those wins were 10, or 15 years ago. So I don’t know, that doesn’t really relate. But the ones certainly recently do.”

Crew chief Chris Gabehart’s arrival to the role in 2019 coincides with the No. 11 team’s recent hot streak of advancing to the Championship 4. The vehicles have changed since he and Hamlin joined forces, but their approach at this time of the year has not.

“When I think about our process and what we do and how we prepare, it doesn’t change that much, honestly,” Hamlin said of the postseason. “And so we stick to what we know. It’s been successful for us. And if somehow we can make it to the final four and we have those numbers that you’re talking about, those are the years Gabehart and I have been together.

“There’s something about it that seems to click really well. We’re both fierce competitors, and we love going to the race track knowing that we can win every single week. But there’s still two weeks worth of work to be done. We know that. We don’t get too far ahead of our skis. And that’s what’s really made us successful. It’s just really focusing on the moment itself.”

Kyle Larson is locked into the Championship 4 courtesy of his Las Vegas triumph with William Byron holding a nine-point advantage over the provisional divide. Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., his JGR teammate and Regular Season Champion, sit two points above Christopher Bell, another JGR team member for the final transfer spots in the title foursome. Tyler Reddick sits 16 points beneath the line with Ryan Blaney 17 markers out, ahead of Chris Buescher, who trails the line by 23 points.

Byron won last year’s spring race at Martinsville and Truex is a three-time winner there. Both have won at Homestead and Phoenix too. Hamlin still points to Byron and Truex as the most likely to advance out of the Round of 8 but said “You can make an argument for all of them.”

RELATED: What to watch at Homestead | Championship odds heading into Homestead

“When I put it all together, I still believe that that’s the case,” Hamlin said of Byron and Truex’s chances to move on. “And I believe that when you look at the general results of the season, it’s probably the most deserving four. I just feel that way. But will it work out that way? I’m not really sure.”

While Hamlin and Gabehart are the most visible leaders of the No. 11 team, Hamlin acknowledged the extra work car chief Brandon Griffeth has taken on as the championship bout nears.

“I think his willingness to sacrifice being at the shop late nights when me and Chris are spitballing ideas, and, ‘hey, we want to change this’ on Thursday evening,” Hamlin said. “Now, you know, they got to load the truck and get the truck on the road. Being able to be very nimble and being willing to be part of the team. And that goes a long way. And he’s making sacrifices, and really all the A-team members that are setting up the car all deserve a huge shout-out.

“These are the long-hour type of weeks. I mean, other weeks, while they’re like this, they’re not like this. We don’t wait ’til the last minute to put the setup in the car like we do on these weeks in particular. We put a lot more work into it, put a little more thought into it. And they are the unsung heroes for sure.”

It should also be stated that Hamlin is still busy as a team co-owner at 23XI Racing at this time of the year — more pertinent in 2023 as Reddick still stands eligible to fight his way into the Championship 4 as the driver of the No. 45 Toyota. Hamlin said Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Hamlin’s JGR team have worked closely together all season, but the hands-on role Hamlin usually applies has altered slightly during the postseason as his drivers navigate the playoffs for the first time with Hamlin at the helm.

“I certainly have taken a little step back over the last couple of weeks and let them do their own thing,” he said. “Again, I don’t want to be responsible and send them down the wrong direction or anything like that. I feel like I’ve been able to help in instances where I think it’s been useful for them. But at this point, they’re one of my competitors, and I’ve got to treat them as a competitor. And as long as I’m still driving, it’s up to them to go and get the job done on their own. Certainly, they don’t need help from the competition to do that.

“I just feel like as long as I’m driving up, it’s always gonna be a tightrope but certainly when we get down in the season and they’re still in it and competitors of mine, I have to treat them as such.”