2023 has already seen Denny Hamlin win three races and finish in the top five 11 times. He will be one of the drivers likely to win the Cup Series when the playoffs begin and will be looking to close off the regular season on a high with a strong performance at Daytona.

Hamlin has a lot of qualities that make him one of the best on the track today, but what is his best ability? On a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, that is exactly what Freddie Kraft and Brett Griffin talk about.

Talking about the last regular-season race at Daytona, Freddie Kraft spoke about strategies for drivers who won’t be racing for stage points and focus on getting playoff points instead.

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Freddie Kraft said that while it was possible in the past to sit back for the majority of a race and then make a late run to make up places, that is not the case anymore. It was in this context that his co-host, Brett Griffin, said that one driver who is perhaps the best at doing that in today’s day and age is Denny Hamlin.

“There’s gonna be some guys that don’t care about stage points. But the problem now, especially now, it’s not like it was three years ago. You can’t ride in the back the whole race and then make a charge late because that’s just now what this package does anymore,” Freddie said.

So if we do say, you know, say alright we’re gonna go out there, you know what we made the decision, we’re gonna ride around and see what kind of stage points some guys get. Okay well, now if they get some points we gotta race. Well, guess what? We’re not gonna be able to just drive back like you have been in the years past, you know,” he further added.

Kraft proceeded to explain why this strategy was not as feasible as it was in years past and why it is near impossible to make up places from a lower position these days. 

“It’s gonna take time, it’s gonna take…if maybe you could say you could sit and watch the first stage and see how it goes and then go race, but, you know, you can’t sit the whole race and go alright I’m gonna run with 20 to go and run up in there and get me a decent finish,”  he explained.

It was here that Brett Griffin stepped in and said that Denny Hamlin was one person who could do that and is perhaps the best at making places up in the closing stages of a race.

“The guy who is really good at this, Freddie, Denny Hamlin. You’ll see him laid back and all of a sudden he’s up there and you’re like, where’d he come from? It’s like he is one of the best to know when it’s go time, and when it’s not,” Griffin said.

Denny Hamlin’s personality has often drawn a lot of attention, sometimes unwanted, towards him and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has come out again, all guns blazing, this time against Xfinity driver Sam Mayer.

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Mayer recently won the Xfinity race at Watkins Glen, but it was not without controversy, as he was involved in a collision with Ty Gibbs and Austin Hill. While fans online were defending Mayer, saying that the incident was nothing but good, hard racing, Hamlin was firmly on Gibbs’ side, and he wasn’t pulling any punches.

On a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said, “People are gonna call me a Homer because I’m sticking out for Ty. They can f**k off. Because I will call it as straight as I can call it.”

“Ty was already driving in plenty deep enough; he already had a gap…Sam made the decision to hey I’m not gonna give up this spot here in the S, even though you are ahead and I’m barely hanging on, you better give me full space….That’s just not the way it works.”

“Mayer put it right on his right rear quarter panel. Ty is way up against the curve over on the left-hand side and so Ty has to let his car switch directions,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver added.

Perhaps Denny Hamlin is right about Sam Mayer making a mistake and costing Ty Gibbs a strong finish, or maybe he’s just saying it because Ty is his boss’ grandson. Either way, he definitely didn’t hold back. Is Hamlin right to criticize Mayer for what happened at the Glen, or was it just hard racing? Let us know what you think.

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