All hopes are on Denny Hamlin‘s capable shoulders this season! After a phenomenal finish at Talladega in P3, Denny seemed to have inched closer to his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series championship. Albeit, with a track record of external hindrances taking over his races and subsequently leading to penalties, Hamlin still showcased a pretty impressive performance throughout the season.
The Talladega Superspeedway also saw a similar incident with Denny, who accumulated a pit road speeding penalty during Lap 105 that saw him fall a lap down. This was the driver’s fourth such penalty this season. Although such regular penalties could affect Denny’s standings during the playoffs, the championship hopeful has consistently proved his ability to get past the hurdle.
Industry experts have also backed the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and shown confidence that if these occasional penalties can be ironed out. It seems there’s no stopping Denny!
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NASCAR insider believes there’s no one as good as Denny Hamlin in the league
Denny Hamlin’s dominance throughout the playoffs has been apparent. With 3108 points in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, Denny has secured 13 top five and 16 Top 10 finishes. The driver also secured wins at Kansas, Pocono and Bristol this year.
At the Talladega Speedway race, Denny finished in the Top three after Kevin Harvick‘s disqualification. Hamlin’s top photo finishes have drawn the attention and appreciation of critics who think despite the subsequent penalties, Denny Hamlin has the ability to lead.
Former driver and NASCAR analyst Kyle Petty recently opined that had any other driver been in Denny’s position with respect to garnering penalties, they could have ended up in a “catastrophic” position.
Speaking on the NASCAR on NBC podcast, Petty said, “So my point is when it’s your year, it’s your year, and this appears to be Denny’s year because of these little things that we’re watching happen. He’s recovering from what could be for other teams, catastrophic.”
He also reiterated that despite all the hurdles, Denny had a ‘nothing day’ and ended the race at a top position, as if his penalty didn’t even exist.
“Denny is on a high. They can do nothing wrong. They can speed on Pit Road, they can do whatever they want to do and they’re going to salvage a top five and he’s going to run up front and lead laps and win races. Listen, when he was a lap down today, he was up there leading the race. I know he didn’t get credit for leading the race but he had put himself in a position to be the car, the first car across the line even though he was a lap down a few times. So, when you look at that, once again it makes you think man if they could just clean up this pit road stuff and clean up some of this stuff, there’s nobody in that league right now and I believe that,” Kyle said.
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It is apparent that there are high stakes at play during races and sometimes, the continuous pressure to keep up leads to messing things up. Denny recently gave an interesting insight into what was going through his mind when he received the penalty at Talladega.
Denny Hamlin says ‘paranoia’ led him to his Talladega pit road penalty
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Aiming for his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series win, Denny has mounting pressure on him as the playoffs inch towards a conclusion. Discussing his Talladega pit road penalty, he recently sat down at his Actions Detrimental podcast to explain what exactly happened.
“I’m leading the race. I come to Pit Road, I’m trying not to get, my mindset was ‘don’t get a** packed here’ which means, like, I’m trying not to get run over by the cars that I know were pitting right behind me and so, that paranoia drove me way deep into the pit lane and I just, flat out missed the first section grossly. It wasn’t even close. So, um, messed that up. So, I just battled a lap down most of the race,” he explained.
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Whatever it may be, Denny still managed to recover from the penalty and this puts a lot of hope in fans. Do you think Denny might win the Championships this time? Let us know in the comments!