Denny Hamlin conquered the Coca-Cola 600, at last. (Photo: Kathryne Porter | The Podium Finish)
If there’s no time like the present, then there’s no better scenario than winning in the case of Denny Hamlin and his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry team.
Prior to Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, Hamlin’s season was a bit of a conundrum with a win at Richmond and two total top 10 finishes. In fact, the 18 year NASCAR Cup Series veteran ranked 20th, a somewhat surprising ranking for the perennial championship contender.
Despite being one of the grizzled veterans at age 41, Hamlin showcased guile, tenacity and cunning to net his 48th career Cup win, a special feat at the 1.5-mile paved Charlotte Motor Speedway.
While it took 17 years for the Chesterfield, Virginia native to win the 600, it was a sweet moment for the Joe Gibbs Racing leadfooter.
“I’m not near the end of my career by any means, but this is certainly one that will be on the résumé when you’re done,” Hamlin reflected. You’re looking at all your accolades, the Coke 600 is way up there. I’ve had 17 tries at it and hadn’t won it until today. It means a lot. We started on the pole. I thought we were just going to stay up front most of the day.”
Truth be told, Hamlin didn’t have one of the dominant cars in the field of 36. Despite tallying a 10th place finish in stage 1, the typically candid racer assessed the early portion of his 600, which was more like a fight for survival.
Hamlin and his No. 11 team capitalized when it mattered at Charlotte. (Photo: Kathryne Porter | The Podium Finish)
“We just weren’t very good, to be honest,” he remarked. “We battled with the car. We were tight, loose. Overall we didn’t have the grip we needed. Yeah, it was a struggle most of the day. But we just stayed in it and never really got ourselves outside of the top 10, really outside of the top eight. We kind of stayed in that spot.”
Although it was a tough start for Hamlin and his No. 11 team, interim crew chief Sam McAulay worked ardently with his crew to improve on the handling of their car. By the fourth and final stage, Hamlin was in good position to tally a top five finish while Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe waged in a battle like Robert De Niro and Al Pacino from the film Heat.
“We capitalized, made our car better in the final stage,” Hamlin shared. “I was able to charge up to fourth. I thought that was about all the potential we had in the car. When the caution came out, Here we go, we got an opportunity to win. Finally something kind of went our way.”
That well timed caution on lap 399 resulted in a plethora of pit strategies aimed either to optimize track position or grip to gain as many spots as possible on the restart. Suffice to say, Hamlin cashed in when it mattered while challenging his team in a sport ball kind of way.
Challenge made and accepted. (Photo: Cody Porter | The Podium Finish)
“At the beginning of the year we were kind of slow,” he said. “I challenged Joe Gibbs Racing to keep a win/loss record. They do in every other sport. As a team you know what your record is because you have a win/loss. What I’ve kind of said is if we’ve got more than one car that is capable of winning in our organization, we’ll count it as a win. If we don’t, then it’s a loss. You can’t just count on one guy to win.
“We started the season 1-4. That was not good. We don’t count superspeedways. The only win was Las Vegas. I don’t know whether we’ll count today as a win or loss. I’m not sure any of us were the top two cars. Again, I got to rewatch and dissect it. I know last week our record was 8-5 at that point. We had gone on a really good run of 7-1 over the last eight races. We’ve been trending in the right direction. So, yes, it’s longwinded but it’s certainly encouraging that even when you don’t have the fastest car you can go out there and find a way to win.”
Always analytical, Hamlin, with two wins and likely solidifying his spot in the Playoffs, realizes how this year’s tight, close competition means wins like his on Sunday evening at Charlotte prove more and more indelible as the regular season winds down.
To the victors goes the soda. (Photo: Cody Porter | The Podium Finish)
“Every year, it’s like a new opportunity, right?” he digressed. “We’ve gone into the Playoffs so many times as the best car, running well. This year has just gone so awful for the first third that you never know. This could be the year that we sleep our way there. I don’t know. Yeah, I already got a couple wins in the first third of the season. Especially with us still working to try to get good at all racetracks, I really think I’m pretty encouraged about where we’re at.
“I didn’t really like my Playoff spot simply because we didn’t have very many Playoff points, but no one does. There’s been no domination in our sport right now from anyone. It’s hard to find any consistency from anyone. It’s allowed the Playoff points to get spread out all over the place. There’s not two to three guys, like in the past, that’s got 40 entering the Playoffs. Probably won’t have that this year. I think it’s going to be more wide open. It’s going to force the guys who have been up front all year to have to run every round.”
Stage 1 Top 10 Finishers
Elliott-Reddick-Bell-Chastain-Wallace/Blaney-Stenhouse Jr.-Truex Jr.-Bowman-Hamlin
Stage 2 Top 10 Finishers
Suárez-Chastain-Jones-Briscooe-Stenhouse Jr./Logano-Harvick-Reddick-Truex Jr.-Bell
Stage 3 Top 10 Finishers
Chastain-Briscoe-Larson-Reddick-Suárez/Logano-Custer-Buescher-Austin Dillon-Hamlin
Coca-Cola 600 Top 10 Finishers
Hamlin-Kyle Busch-Harvick-Briscoe-Bell/Reddick-Stenhouse Jr.-McDowell-Larson-Bowman
