Denny Hamlin’s Antics in 2023 Had Dale Earnhardt Jr Convinced “This Was His Year”

The 2023 NASCAR season did not go well for a lot of drivers. Taking the top spot on that list is Denny Hamlin. It is not just the fact that he failed in his Cup Series title pursuit that makes the year so terrible for him. It is rather the fact that he gave his fans so much hope that he would win it, and his haters so much flak in his interviews after performances. Well, the curtain for the year is closed now and NASCAR will be behind it preparing the stage for 2024.

As the promotion continues its off-season work, Dale Earnhardt Jr has come out expressing his disappointment with Denny Hamlin. It appears Junior himself was left feeling a bit fooled by Hamlin’s promises along with the fans.

Dale Earnhardt Jr admits his disappointment because of Denny Hamlin’s words

Weeks before the playoff rounds, Denny Hamlin had expressed very staunchly that 2023 was going to be his year. The Joe Gibbs Racing star had gone 18 seasons without winning a Cup Series championship. But this season was expected to be the one where he finally did it. The driver himself had seemed completely confident about the prospect. After his win at Bristol in September, he’d shared pictures of the post-race celebration with the caption, “It’s our year.” Unfortunately, it ended up not being so after he failed to make it to the Championship 4.

Talking to Mike Davis on his podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr admitted that he was let down after trusting in Hamlin’s words. He said, “I think that there was a point in the playoffs where he sold the idea that this was his year. We all started to think, ‘Maybe this is the year Denny actually wins this championship’. Really felt like it was truly possible and, unfortunately, that doesn’t work out.”

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Despite his admission, Dale Jr was of the opinion that the #11 driver’s season was nothing to be otherwise disappointed about. Grabbing the statistics book he compared his run with the 2022 season and backed himself.

Despite Hamlin’s letdown, Dale Earnhardt Jr believes that he had a good season

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Every year that Hamlin goes without winning the title the pressure keeps mounting on him. Beginning in 2010 when his 8-win season collapsed in the final moments of the playoffs, to reeling at the heels of Ross Chastain’s “Hail Melon” move in 2022, Hamlin has found the most bizarre of reasons to not get his hands on the championship. In 2023, it wasn’t the case. His run at Martinsville was just as good as the race winner Ryan Blaney’s. But the Team Penske Mustang ended up getting the better of his Toyota.

Through the season, despite all the issues with Toyotas, Hamlin secured 3 wins and 8 stage wins. Looking at the overall picture, Dale Jr said, “3 wins, 8 stage wins, 4 DNFs. His season was nothing to be disappointed with. (…) This year they were much more competitive week to week [In comparison to 2022]. He’s gonna be disappointed with the final result. I would say he mattered more this year. He was certainly more of a contender for the championship than he was the year before.”

When the 2024 season begins, Hamlin will be 43 years old. Both the driver and his team are aware that time is running out for them. While one cannot possibly correlate age with the ability to win races directly, it does provide an idea of potential performance change. Whether Denny Hamlin can find it in himself to compete for the title once again with the conviction that he had in 2023, is a question that only time can answer.

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