Although Las Vegas was a battle between Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing during the closing laps, it wasn’t Denny Hamlin who posed a threat to Kyle Larson. Many might have been disappointed by the fact that they didn’t get to see a sequel to the Hamlin-Larson Pocono episode. But hold your breath as Denny Hamlin has revealed something interesting during the 4EVER 400 pre-race media availability.

Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson have been around in the NASCAR arena for decades now. Both drivers have amassed several victories in the NASCAR top-tier series. But No. 5 has something that Denny Hamlin doesn’t. And it’s a championship title. With perhaps less than a decade remaining in Hamlin’s Cup career, he is in a desperate hunt for that coveted title. And this time, he’s doing all the homework he can do before he takes Larson on.

Denny Hamlin hints at having his weapon ready to slay Kyle Larson

A driver doesn’t just wake up on a Sunday, have a cup of coffee, and drive to the racetrack in a leisurely manner. Weeks of preparation and hours of planning go behind each and every race. And that includes countless driver meetings with the crew chief and the spotters, all the simulation work, and much more.

On top of that, every driver pinpoints all their focus on the driving styles of their rivals. How can they beat a certain someone under certain circumstances? Needless to say, Denny Hamlin has spent tireless hours studying the driving style of his archrival, Kyle Larson. However, when The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck asked Hamlin about what he saw in Larson that made him so good, Hamlin provided a rather tactful reply.

Denny Hamlin felt that other than the fact that the driver of the No. 5 could race a bit harder, there wasn’t a lot that he saw in the #5 icon that made him so good at the sport. But doesn’t it seem even a little abnormal that Denny Hamlin’s seasoned eyes haven’t noticed anything about Kyle Larson’s driving prowess that he would need to tackle carefully?

The good news is that there are a couple of points that the JGR icon has on his mind. The bad news is, he won’t reveal them. Hamlin said, “There are some very minor things here and there but obviously nothing I would share publicly because you know, why would I tell…if I study, why would I give out my information to others?”

“There’s nothing that jumps off the page. There’s nothing obvious that’s a lot different,” he added.

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Denny Hamlin might have tried to lessen the excitement with those last two sentences, but needless to say, motorsport enthusiasts will not rest easy and ponder: what are these few little things that Hamlin refused to disclose in public?

Larson sheds light on his biggest advantage at Homestead-Miami Speedway

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Kyle Larson is perhaps sitting on the most advantageous seat, moving into the penultimate race of the round of 8. He sits at the top of the leaderboard with 4084 points. Moreover, he was the first to qualify for Championship 4. That gives him two weeks’ time to run all the simulation work for Phoenix and prepare for the coveted race. But he’s not just going to go on a vacation for two weeks because he’s locked in the championship race.

The ‘wheelman’ seems to take every race seriously. So much so that he has conjured a way to run faster than the others on the 1.5-mile intermediate oval. And moments before the races, he spilled his secret.

Remember the way Ross Chastain ran against the wall last year at Martinsville, leveraging on the momentum and making his way into the Championship 4? The 31-year-old seems to have planned out something similar to that. However, NASCAR has banned the drivers from replicating Chastain’s video game move. So what next?

Read more: Kyle Larson Claims Yet Another Championship Win Amidst His Worsening Playoff Misery

Kyle Larson has planned to run close to the outside wall, capitalizing on the higher groove at Homestead-Miami Speedway to clear his opponents. During the same pre-race presser, the 31-year-old said, “It seems to be how I’ve figured out how to go fast here. You gotta be comfortable against the wall and I know there’s a lot of drivers that aren’t that comfortable against it. So that gives guys like myself an advantage when we come here.”

“It just seems like the next-gen cars, it’s a bit easier to pack air against the wall,” he added with confidence.

While Denny Hamlin stopped himself from disclosing his secret weapon against Kyle Larson, the latter clearly illuminated his own! Doesn’t that just notch up the expectations revolving around this race? Let us know in the comments below!