The fortune of Joe Gibbs Racing team has been as unpredictable as the tracks. One driver who has contributed to it the most is none other than Denny Hamlin. Starting with almost losing his position for the NASCAR 2024 Cup Series, to qualifying at the Bristol race and managing his last chance, Hamlin has showcased it all. 

The aftermath saw Hamlin trying his level best and securing the 14th position at Roval and the 8th position at the Las Vegas Speedway. However, things are not in favor of Hamlin, as he now stands under the fury of elimination and a sudden decline in performance. 

Denny Hamlin’s current standings pose a threat to his top 4 entry

Hamlin currently stands in the 5th position, 27 points below the cutline – not an ideal scenario! He has 4 wins in the 2024 season. Coupling this with his poor performance and inconsistent pit stops, it seems as though he is currently in a precarious position. Hamlin has an average finish of 14.5 seconds which could be the only statistic that might work in his favor. It seems as though a losing streak has caught Denny and he has not been able to make it to 17 races after his last win in Richmond. 

The season began with huge promises and yet has ended with a do-or-die situation. If Denny Hamlin is unable to make it to the victory line at either Homestead or Martinsville, he will have to bid goodbye to his twenty-decade dream of making it to the Championship yet once again. Citing this inconsistency on track, Eric Estepp’s podcast threw some valuable light on the current situation.

It said, “Although the finish wasn’t there last year, I had him rated as a top-five car in 2022, where I ranked him ninth, showing some improvement. In the first year of the Gen 7 car, Toyotas struggled at certain tracks, but if he can take another step forward, he might have a shot. The positives are his strong performances on similar tracks like Vegas, Kansas, and Darlington, where he was very strong, but that was nearly two months ago, and since then, he hasn’t had a race-winning car.”

However, Denny Hamlin is also aware that he might not have put his best and it is now time for him to ace things up. In his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin seemed to be quite optimistic about his current position. He said, “I feel like our chances are as good as anyone. But, ultimately, we’re one of the very few cars that can win any given week. So, no matter what points position we might find ourselves in, and we will be in a precarious points position at some point of the Playoffs. We always feel like we can go to the next track and win, so that’s on something that only a few cars can do”. 

The Homestead Miami track has been favorable to Hamlin and hence it does not completely take hopes away. Although Denny Hamlin currently has just one top-10 finish in two of the Next-Gen Homestead starts, he does hold the best average running position. When compared to the other active drivers based on the average finishing position at the 1.5-mile tracks, he has the second-best average. Although it might seem like his Top 4 position is in jeopardy, it might not take much time to turn things around at Homestead Miami!

Harvick Questions Hamlin with Declining Hopes for Playoffs

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Hamlin’s poor performance has put even NASCAR veterans worried about his stance in the Top 4. In a recent podcast, Harvick broke down Hamlin’s performance and said, “It just doesn’t seem like they’re hitting on all eight cylinders to be able to capitalize on everything. And a lot of that is for whatever reason, it could be a number of things, right? It could be all the things happening outside the racetrack for Denny. It could be that the cars aren’t as fast. But they definitely aren’t as good as they were at the beginning of the year”. The worries amplified after a green flag pit stop on Lap 33. 

This mistake made him 13.4 seconds late and put him into 5th position, behind Christopher Bell. The delay culminated when he made a stop four to five feet before where he was supposed to stop. By the time he came back to the track, he had already fallen from 5th to 14th.

Hamlin accepted his mistakes and mentioned, “ I missed hitting the sign on that one, but that’s where we had the left rear tire loose wheel. So, it didn’t affect that because they had already run around the other side. It usually messes up the timing on the right, which can affect the left. But it doesn’t affect loose wheels. It affects more, you know, pulls and positioning and bodies. Things like that”.  Although the mistake might seem to be very minute, it is this that led to a delay and put him off the track. Repeating such a mistake would surely put him off the Top 4 contender game.