What’s Happening?

No one is safe at Superspeedways. No matter where your favorite driver is on track, they are still at risk of a crash. However, many drivers have long used one strategy to not only survive a Superspeedway race but contend for the win. However, is it time to put this mythical strategy to rest?

What Is This Strategy?

Racing at Daytona, Talladega, or even Atlanta Motor Speedway really is a game of chance. You can run at the front and get wrecked by an aggressive push. Or, you can hang towards the front or front half of the pack and get caught up in those accidents that start at the very front. But what about hanging out back?

Many drivers practice this idea during Superspeedway races, hoping that hanging out back will allow them to dodge major accidents throughout the majority of the race. Out back, of course, until the right time to work their way to the front.

While it may not win you a race, sometimes it’s more important to finish well at these drafting tracks than to win. Drivers like veteran Cup Series winner Ryan Newman have used this strategy, and even some part-timers like Jordan Anderson have used it to success in the past.

Some drivers have laid back even in the Playoffs, such as 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Ryan Blaney, who led only seven laps in his Playoff win at Talladega last fall. However, Denny Hamlin laid back this past weekend in Atlanta. It didn’t go so well for the veteran.

Why Did It Not Work for Denny?

Atlanta is unique from other drafting tracks on the NASCAR schedule. The Intermediate Superspeedway hybrid track keeps drivers on the edge of their seats.

Denny Hamlin entered Atlanta in a comfortable spot. However, the race itself was not so comfortable. It was clear early on that hanging out back was Denny’s strategy. Even after the race, he admitted on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, that this was the plan all along.

Atlanta not only has those typical drafting wrecks, but it can pull a driver’s car out from under them; ask Kyle Larson, who had a violent wreck at Atlanta. Of course, someone would have to try hanging out back to avoid the big wrecks, and it worked for the most part, with Denny missing five accidents.

However, as the race came toward its conclusion, Denny didn’t seem to move up, almost as if the strategy was gone or as if there was no strategy at all. Denny ended up in an 11-car accident on the final lap, resulting in a 24th-place finish.

Of course, Denny heard comments from all around NASCAR about this, with Denny saying on Actions Detrimental that a late debris caution changed his plan, or at least what he thought would happen late in the race.

“It was about to happen. And then a caution came, and then, okay, now we got a five-lap dash. So that took out six laps of that really intense time that typically those wrecks happened. So. Hey, it just didn’t work out.” — Denny Hamlin on Actions Detrimental

Is This Strategy Still Valid?

This survival strategy may not work anymore, and that may not be for the worst. Fans and former drivers like Kevin Harvick were displeased with Hamlin’s “scared strategy.”

The Next-Gen car further complicates the plans of any team and driver using this strategy to win or, like Hamlin, merely finish the race. The Next Gen’s fuel window makes it all the more difficult to plan out.

While the car’s maneuverability eliminates many of the great late-race runs that drivers used to make to get to the front, this maneuverability is especially bad on Atlanta Motor Speedway’s narrow, packed surface.

However, it may not be as dead as some think. Remember that Ryan Blaney led just a handful of laps before winning at Talladega last year, and in the 2023 Spring race, Kyle Busch led just three.

Life intervened in Hamlin’s plan with the debris caution and the last lap crash. However, Hamlin did say on Actions Detrimental, “If I qualified up front, I would have tried to stay up front.”

So maybe this wasn’t a strategy, rather, just a means of finishing close to his starting spot. This means perhaps this strategy may not be dead, and some familiar faces could lay back early on when we get to Talladega.

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