Denny Hamlin just might fall short of clinching his first NASCAR Cup Series championship. Almost every year, the JGR driver is touted as the title contender, but, for some reason, he just doesn’t turn up when it matters the most. And for the most part, it’s his decisions and tactics that land him into trouble, not the drivers with whom he’s competing.

Like every season, it felt like the veteran driver just might add the final feather to round off a Hall of Fame-worthy career. But as soon as the playoffs arrived, Hamlin’s ghosts from the past came back to haunt him. He chose to rely on a sketchy strategy at Atlanta to avoid wrecks, only to end the race being caught up in one late wreck. And he suffered a similar fate in the very first lap of the race at Watkins Glen.

Although Hamlin is pretty confident about turning the tides in his favor at Bristol, Kyle Petty was quick to remind him of the discrepancies that have hurt him in the past.

Denny Hamlin needs to stop overthinking, says Kyle Petty

Hamlin and Kyle Petty recently were involved in a war of words after his mediocre outing at Atlanta during the first playoff race. Although he started the race on the tail end of the field for an unapproved adjustment, he stalled his progress with fear of getting wrecked. While this decision was based on the data and analytics, it certainly didn’t fare well for him. And he’s now dug a hole for himself going into the Bristol race.

In the Next Gen era, he’s been on the receiving end of a Hail-melon move by Ross Chastain. And in 2023, he had a steering malfunction at Homestead, which derailed his title run. But, Kyle Petty is now worried about Hamlin’s chances after losing out on the buffer he gained during the regular season. “I think that’s the perfect way to put it. He does overthink, he overthinks, he overanalyzes…He didn’t need to do what he did at the time, he didn’t need to do at Atlanta what he did, but he thought he did.” Petty said this while speaking on GoPRNLive.

He further added that while he’s a future Hall of Famer, he just can’t seem to learn from his past mistakes to clinch NASCAR’s biggest prize. “I mean, he’s that guy; you can’t take that away from it. At the same time, he’s his own worst enemy in a lot of ways. He’s his own competitor, and it’s between his ears in a lot of cases. I think we saw that at Atlanta, and I think we’ve seen it other times in his career; this is not something new to Denny Hamlin.”

Now, another argument that can be made about Denny Hamlin is that he stretched too thin what all the things he’s been involved with. That includes being a co-owner of a Cup Series team and running a podcast show. At the same time, also trying to conquer his dream as a JGR driver.

Hamlin needs to find his focus back on the racetrack

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The charter negotiations drama couldn’t have come at the worst time for Hamlin and his partners at 23XI Racing. Just before the playoffs began in Atlanta, NASCAR confirmed that they had reached a new charter agreement with the team. However, 23XI Racing rebelled against NASCAR and demanded fair and reasonable negotiation grounds to get their demands fulfilled.

Denny Hamlin did mention that playoffs would be his priority and that the charter talks won’t affect his run. But, it’s fair to say that it has altered the way Hamlin would approach the crucial races, and results haven’t been great as well. Kevin Harvick didn’t hesitate to share his two cents on Hamlin’s playoff run. Citing that charter talks have played a hand in his sudden decline.

“I think when you look back at the driver strategy to go out at Atlanta and just try to race for 20 points, and then all the drama that’s happened, especially with the charters, it’s derailed the 11 car.” Harvick said this on the Happy Hour podcast. The only way Hamlin can make amends for this recent slump is to get back to winning way at Bristol. And then start fresh with a new approach for the next playoff round.