Denny Hamlin enters Martinsville this weekend down 17 points from the cut-line to get into the Championship 4. Martinsville is one of Hamlin’s best tracks, and this is his last chance to work his way into Championship contention this season. This race is big, but why might it be the biggest race of Denny Hamlin’s career?
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Denny Hamlin has a Hall-of-Fame-caliber resume. He has won 51 races including three Daytona 500s, three Southern 500s, and the 2022 Coca-Cola 600. He’s also won every non-points event he can including the Clash, the All-Star Race, and the Daytona Duels.
Everything that can be done in a NASCAR career, Hamlin has done it. That is, except for winning a Championship. As a matter of fact, he has not won a NASCAR National Touring Series Championship at any level. It is the one thing left for Hamlin to accomplish, and he needs to likely win Martinsville in order to win a Championship with time ticking.
Denny Hamlin is 42 years old, and he will be 43 when the next season comes around. He will be one of the elder statesmen of the sport with teammate Martin Truex Jr. being the only driver older than him. Hamlin recently signed a multi-year extension to stay with Joe Gibbs Racing, so, he will stay in the sport for at least the next couple of years.
However, he is not getting any younger, and this is about the time that some driver’s skills begin to erode. Now, Denny Hamlin keeps himself in good shape, so, he very well could become Mark Martin or Harry Gant and race into his 50s. However, at some point, he will begin to decline.
This may be Hamlin’s best chance at a Championship before his career ends. No one knows if Hamlin will have an opportunity like this one for the rest of his career, and that makes it all the more important to take advantage now.
Martinsville is one of Denny Hamlin’s best race tracks. He has five career wins there, and he has led more than 100 laps in three of the last five races there. Yes, he has not won there since 2015, but he still runs up front while at Martinsville.
If Hamlin absolutely had to be in this position at 17 points out, then Martinsville is the place he would want to make this deficit up. Hamlin knows that it could be now or never to win a Championship, and he has one of his best race tracks coming up. This is a race Hamlin has to have, and this is the place he has a great opportunity to do it.
Denny Hamlin looked like a Championship favorite throughout the first half of the Playoffs. He had four straight top-5 finishes and a win at Bristol, but he has followed that up with two finishes outside of the top 30 in the last three races. He also was fighting for the regular season Championship with teammate Martin Truex Jr. at season’s end.
He has speed, and he has been a Championship-level driver at his best throughout the season. If you are a Championship-level driver during a season, you need to take advantage of it. Hamlin has to do so this season, which he has failed to do in previous seasons.
Denny Hamlin has plenty of reasons for why this race is huge for his career. If he fails to get into the Championship 4 with a good race at Martinsville, then who knows what chance he will get over the next couple of years.
Two NASCAR Cup Series crew members for Ross Chastain’s No. 1 team were suspended following the race at Circuit of the Americas
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On February 17, Ubisoft released a trailer that confirmed that NASCAR would be included in The Crew Motorfest’s next season update. Details were limited at the time, but in a press release issued today, Ubisoft revealed the full details of the update ahead of its March 4 launch.
Ubisoft says drafting will affect car speed and help save fuel, implying that drafting will be a huge factor in the game, at least with these cars. You can check out this and much more on Ubisoft’s official post linked below
Earlier this Tuesday, the official The Crew Motorfest account clarified confusion around the NASCAR bundles. The Crew Credit (CC) bundles only include cosmetic team liveries, not additional cars. The 3 base Next Gen cars (Ford Mustang Dark Horse, Toyota Camry XSE, and Chevrolet ZL1) are part of the free Season 9 update and can be purchased separately.
Mitch Rasmussen, NASCAR’s Senior Director of Interactive, said in the press release:
We’re excited to bring our iconic brand to life in The Crew Motorfest. This collaboration represents another important step in our strategy to bring NASCAR into the digital spaces and places where next generation fans spend their time, giving players new ways to interact with the culture and communities they love.
The content arrives as part of Year 3 Season 9 and is officially licensed by NASCAR. You can watch the first trailer and learn more in the article linked below
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Four road courses on the schedule, and somehow that’s enough to spark one of the biggest debates in the garage. After recent comments from Brad Keselowski questioning the business value of road racing, the conversation has picked up serious steam. Is NASCAR leaning too far into it, or is the current balance about right?
There are valid points on both sides, from sponsorship realities to fan traditions to competitive diversity. Some tracks have gained traction. Others have struggled. The question isn’t just whether road courses belong, but how many make sense within a 36-race season. It’s less about extremes and more about direction. And with future schedule changes always looming, this debate probably isn’t settled anytime soon.
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