Denny Hamlin is a driver who should have been the favorite at the Pocono Raceway, even if Denny denies it. Especially considering that he boasts of seven wins at the Tricky Triangle. Remember, Hamlin went on to win the July 23, 2023, race under caution over Tyler Reddick for his record-breaking seventh victory at Pocono and the 50th of his Cup Series career.

Unfortunately, he could only manage to finish in P2 behind race winner Ryan Blaney this time. Truthfully, this was not an easy win for the Team Penske star. As the lap counter ticked downward, Hamlin was practically hunting him down. While for Hamlin, this could have been his 8th victory on the track, for Busch, whose playoff struggle doesn’t seem to end, this was a must-have win. In light of this, Kevin Harvick spoke about what Hamlin could have done differently.

Admittedly, the #11 driver has already secured his playoff berth with three wins under his belt. However, while the likes of Busch need it more than anything, what’s the harm for Hamlin to snatch a few more just for the sake of insurance? After all, every win the JGR driver steals is one denied to his rivals and their chances of making the playoffs.

In Episode 43 of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” Harvick spoke of how Denny Hamlin could have taken his fourth win of the season and a record 8th Pocono win. Then again, hindsight is 20/20, and it is all well and good to say it after the deed is done. Maybe circumstances did not fall in Hamlin’s favor, but he definitely gave it his best shot to catch Ryan Blaney.

The FOX analyst said, “The key to that usually becomes, who’s pushing you and how those pushes go. You just don’t want to be door-to-door with him. We’ve seen him put the #5 car in that position, the #1 car. That’s happened a couple of times at Pocono, but Denny Hamlin’s tough.”

Further giving a perspective on his last run, Kevin Harvick gives out his piece of advice, saying, “When you look at Denny, they’ve had a rough 5 weeks as far as finishes go. When you look at Pocono and the finish that he had there, they had just a solid day. You heard him say it after the race, ‘We had a solid day from start to finish.’ They needed to stop the bleeding. It’s not that they have been running bad, but sometimes you just get in these funks where you can’t get those finishes.”

Here, as the former Stewart-Haas Racing legend was referring to Hamlin’s past races at Pocono, he emphasized the past couple of visits to the track. Stating that Denny Hamlin was notorious for getting his elbows out while leading, and one of his first victims was Ross Chastain, where he forced him to take the long way round and practically fed him into the wall.

Chastain started 19th in the 37-car field in the Great American Getaway 400. His No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet was running 21st before it broke loose in Turn 3 in the 53rd of a scheduled 160 laps, making significant right-side contact with the outside retaining wall. Meanwhile, he tried the same stunt with Kyle Larson, and it was a carbon copy of the Chastain move.

While the melon man sits in the 15th spot on the standings  and is looking thick on his playoff chances, unless Kyle Busch scores a win or two and jumps up from the 19th

Kevin Harvick threw a bit of shade at Kyle Busch

On the subject of a rough patch, Harvick compared it to Kyle Busch’s ongoing slump, which continued at Pocono. This happened when Corey LaJoie’s No. 7 Chevrolet made contact with Busch’s No. 8 Chevy as the field fanned out and then tried to funnel into Turn 1 in the final stage. The nudge sent Busch’s No. 8 sliding through the infield grass and back up into traffic, collecting the cars of AJ Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Ryan Preece, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

But unobvious to Kyle Busch this time, instead of sarcasm post-race, he took the high road by thanking sponsors when asked about the contact with LaJoie. When pressed, Busch offered: “That’s just racing these days. It’s what happens.”

Evidently, last year’s honeymoon period is over, and the REAL Richard Childress Racing has turned up. Harvick observed that the difference between Hamlin and Busch’s situation is the speed that the former has.

Naturally, the pace is a massive factor contributing to Hamlin’s ability behind the wheel. As another example, the 2014 champion highlighted Hamlin’s teammate, Christopher Bell. In the early races, the #20 driver was struggling and did not look like someone who was a 2023 Championship 4 contender. Harvick acknowledged that the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is hardly going to dominate every race.

He partly put it down to the nature of the Next Gen car. According to Kevin Harvick, there will be times where drivers experience dry spells in the middle of the season. Considering the level of mid-pack racing, getting involved in wrecks is inevitable. On other occasions, the car will not behave as a driver would like, and it will adversely affect the statistics. What makes things interesting is that the competition is closer, and strategy can also play a big role.