(Photo: Maddie Skidan | The Podium Finish)
RICHMOND, Va. — In April, Denny Hamlin came to Richmond Raceway, his home track, in need of a boost. He started the season off with six finishes of 13th or worse and sat 22nd in driver’s points.
In one race, Hamlin’s season instantly turned around. With five laps to go, Hamlin passed William Byron to win his first race of the 2022 season. He later went on to win the Coca-Cola 600 to lock himself into the playoffs.
But with three races remaining in the regular season, Hamlin heads home in a much better position. Though he has just four top fives, his victories have him fifth in the playoff standings. It’s been the 31 pit penalties holding the team back from more consistent results.
Because Hamlin is safe in the playoffs, his focus is on winning at home for the fifth time.
“I feel it a little bit harder than I do on any other type of racetrack,” Hamlin said on Saturday. “I would say I always feel more pressure coming to this race track in general. Martinsville is probably a very, very close number two, but it doesn’t always mean you’re going to have success even though you know what you need.”
Hamlin won the spring race off of tire strategy. Crew chief Chris Gabehart called to split the final stage into thirds while others split it in half. On fresh tires, Hamlin stormed through the field late to notch his 47th Cup Series victory.
Although the strategy worked in April, with warmer weather and less grip, it may not play out the same on Sunday.
(Photo: Sean Folsom | The Podium Finish)
“Just depends whether the fall-off is the same,” Hamlin said. “If the fall off is less this time, then two stops won’t work because there’ll be farther out. They won’t drop off as far in the long run. It just kind of depends on how the race is playing out.
“There’s so many factors that play into it. Certainly, there was a time where in that last stage if a caution comes at any point, either they would have been in big trouble or we would have been in big trouble. So it’s kind of a double-edged sword there.”
Hamlin is coming off a third-place finish at Michigan, his best result since his Charlotte victory. He had one of the fastest cars but a late penalty for too many men over the wall sent him to 23rd before driving back through the field.
Two weeks before that, Hamlin thought he had won Pocono before being disqualified for a modification to the front facia of his car. Instead of winning, he finished 35th.
But, Richmond has always been known as a place dominated by veterans like himself. With 31 starts at “the action track,” Hamlin knows his way around quite well.
“Knowing what you need to feel here in practice versus what you race is something that knowledge certainly plays a factor,” he said. “I’m going to look for a certain type of field my car needs to work a certain way in the certain part of the corner for me to know that whether it’s a race-winning car or not. Those are things that you know younger guys would not next experience don’t necessarily have but sometimes you have a young driver with an experienced team that gives them the foresight to look for those things.”
Hamlin will start third in Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400. The race is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on USA Network. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. is the defending race winner.
