Slower Than Kyle Larson & Tyler Reddick, Self-Doubting Denny Hamlin Discloses Sensitive Conversation With Joe Gibbs Team Member

For the second week in a row, Denny Hamlin seemed to have a good car that would be able to go all the way and win the race. And for the second week in a row, Denny Hamlin failed to win a race. But his result at Kansas was far better than what it was at Darlington. Last Sunday in the second playoff race of the 2023 Cup Series, the 42-year-old finished in second place behind his employee at 23XI Racing, Tyler Reddick.

But the question a lot of fans are asking is why isn’t Denny Hamlin winning a race? His car seems to be more than good enough to win and he has the race craft and the experience to get the job done. While the likes of Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson quickly move to the front of the pack right from the get-go if they have good cars underneath them. Why does it take Hamlin until near the end of the race to make a move when it might just be too late?

Denny Hamlin reveals pre-race jitters ahead of Kansas

On a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, the 42-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver discussed what goes through his mind when he knows he has a car that can challenge for the win. The reason is a lot simpler than people may imagine, and this was the case in Kansas on Sunday.

Hamlin has been in the game for a very long time. He is one of the oldest drivers on the track who is still performing at a very high level and his experience guides his intuition when the crucial decisions are to be made. The JGR driver said that the reason he does not move right to the front of the track is simply him being cautious so that nothing goes wrong.

“I just probably am a little bit more cautious when I know I’ve got a race-winning car and it takes me a little bit longer to get to the front. Guys like Kyle Larson or Reddick, some of these guys are lightning-fast. They can just, they blow through the pack and they’re up front in no time. Me, it takes a little bit longer because I’m working into it, I’m making sure I don’t make a mistake,” he revealed on his podcast.

It is stressful, leading a race for the most part of over 300 laps. And leading the most laps does not guarantee a win. Just take Kansas, Tyler Reddick won the race after leading all of two laps.  

He might be a highly skilled driver, but he is human. Just like everyone else, he also has doubts at times going into a race.The 42-year-old spoke about the conversation he had with his crew chief Chris Gabehart before the Kansas race. During this conversation, he revealed that he was not sure if he could hang back and then make a move through the pack to get to the front of the race.

“I wasn’t that confident overnight. My crew chief Chris Gabehart says take a breath, we’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna drive to the front like you always do at this track. I’m like yeah Chris but that’s the past like, I can’t rest on laurels. I can’t just say that well we’ve done it before we’re just gonna do it again. I’m like Chris, I don’t know, other guys have gotten better, I just don’t feel like my car has got the ‘it’,” Hamlin added.

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As it turned out, his car did have ‘it’ as he drove brilliantly to come home in second place. After the disappointment that was Darlington, this was a positive result. He was just not as fast as Reddick on the day, which is also something Denny would consider a positive.

23XI Racing boss reveals advice that helped Tyler Reddick win

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Hamlin is the co-owner of the 23XI Racing team, for which Reddick drives. He himself might have won the race but the team he owns did and that is always a moment of happiness and pride for the owner. And as it turned out, Denny Hamlin was advising Reddick as he was running close to second place towards the end of the race.

With only two laps to go in the final stage, Reddick took the lead and took the outside line close to the wall. Taking this line does give the driver a bit of an advantage but it is risky as it’s so close to the wall.

Denny saw this and radioed his team to relay a message to Reddick, asking him to not be the caution with only two laps remaining. The message was relayed and the 23XI man did heed his boss’ advice to hold on to his position.

“You know the last part of the race when we were just cruising at that point, they mentioned to me that the 45 was at the fence, he’s getting all that he can just to kind of keep up. At that point I said, Remind him don’t be the caution right, like let’s just keep this thing status quo,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin is in a strong position on the table in third place with a 49-point cushion ahead of the cutline. He will make it through to the round of 12 in all probability and given how his #11 JGR car has been running, it is high possibility that he might just get into the final four.

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