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Denny Hamlin started this year as a clear-cut championship favorite. But, like most years, it looks like Hamlin is going to come up short. With one race until the cutoff for the Round of 12, Hamlin shockingly is below the cutoff line. If Hamlin doesn’t make the cut, would this be his worst playoff run to date?
A win at the Busch Clash in LA welcomed fans to 2024 by seeing a familiar site, Denny Hamlin, leading the field to the Checkered Flag. Hamlin had a great start to the regular season as well. Fourteen races in, Hamlin had three wins and the points lead.
Since then, Hamlin has faced engine issues, accidents, and off-track issues. One major problem was a massive L2 Penalty NASCAR handed to Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing.
This penalty resulted from Toyota Racing Development’s unsealing of Hamlin’s race-winning engine from the spring Bristol race. The penalty cost Hamlin 75 points, 10 Playoff points, and potentially a shot at the Regular-Seasonionship. Most importantly, Hamlin lost all playoff benefits from winning at Bristol.
Most figured that Denny wouldn’t need the win. However, two races into the playoffs, those ten Playoff points have turned into a major storyline for Hamlin.
After riding around mid-pack at Atlanta, Hamlin finished with a wrecked race car and a 24th-place finish. With a chance to recover at the Glen, Hamlin found himself involved in a lap one with Kyle Busch and then a lap 48 crash with Brad Keselowski.
Denny finished 23rd and now faces elimination. However, if Hamlin does get eliminated, this might not be his worst playoff performance.
In 2018, Denny Hamlin not only faced first-round elimination but had one of the toughest seasons of his career to date.
Coming off a 2017 season in which Hamlin had the Cup Series’ fourth-best average finish among full-time drivers, hopes were high for Denny. However, 2018 would be a different story. While Hamlin didn’t have a bad year, he couldn’t seem to keep up with the rest of the field.
In his first winless season since 2005, Hamlin entered the first Round of the Playoffs in 13th, a very manageable spot with two familiar tracks ahead of him in Las Vegas and Richmond.
Hamlin started the Playoffs with a 32nd-place finish at Vegas after starting third. However, he recovered and qualified well at Richmond, starting second, before finishing an underwhelming 16th. In an unfortunate turn of events, most fans view the last race of the first round of the 2018 Playoffs as the most chaotic playoff race ever.
The 2018 Roval race at Charlotte debuted the new track layout for the NASCAR community. This race saw dramatic last-lap contact between Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, resulting in Ryan Blaney’s playoff upset win.
Hamlin started 27th, and with everything on the line, the driver of the No. 11 managed to keep his nose clean for the majority of the year. However, Denny finished 12th, which kept him out of the Round of 12.
Denny is in a much better spot this year, and some still wonder if he can recover.
The simple answer is yes. Hamlin has four wins at Bristol in his career, leaving him with the opportunity to win and advance. However, that is much easier said than done at Bristol.
Though Hamlin has won back-to-back races at the 0.533-mile track, the playoffs make the track all the more dangerous. He is racing against Brad Keselowski and teammate Martin Truex Jr. to get back above the cut-off line.
Even if Denny cannot recover and does not advance, there is little reason to worry about his future. Hamiln recovered from that 2018 slump with a six-win, 19 top-five, and 24 top-ten performances in 2019.
It has been a rocky road for Hamlin lately, but is there still time for NASCAR’s most controversial driver to learn from past mistakes and recover from this slump?
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