Daytona Beach, Florida – Nascar star Denny Hamlin won the closest Daytona 500, as well as one of the most chaotic.
He won victory No. 3 in a photo while Ryan Newman’s car was left in a bunch of fire.
To become the third pilot in 67 years to win the great American race a fourth time, Hamlin may need to do something more unexpected, spectacular and special.
The Gen 7 car marginalized the sixth sense of Hamlin on Super Speedways, while the Toyotas recently shorted against Chevrolet and Ford, who divided the last four 500. Hamlin, 44, lacks chances and knows that the chances are against him.
“I want to remind everyone that I ran 40 races in Daytona, and I only won three,” he joked this week. “If you look at him from the point of view of victory, it’s horrible. But in our sport, they call it great. »»
A victory on Sunday by one of Nascar’s most polarizing pilots would generate buzz and continue to build a curriculum vitae among the best of this generation.
Hamlin, however, shows few signs of slowing down in its 20th season in the Cup series.
Since a 2018 without victory at 37, has stimulated theories that he could discolor, Hamlin posted 23 victories in six seasons, including Daytona 500 in 199 – a race featuring three wrecks and two red flag stops during Of the last 10 regulatory laps – and in 20th year, when the horrible crash of Newman consumed the racial community for days.
The capture of the 500 consecutive was a rare feat previously accomplished by only three pilots, the winner of seven times Richard Petty, the quadruple winner Cale Yarborough and Sterling Marlin.
“He is really intelligent in thinking about the final game,” said Ryan Blaney, who lost Hamlin by 0.014 second in 20. “He’s good everywhere, but here it really shows.”
Hamlin, who also won Talladega Superspeedway twice, said he had come at the ideal time to learn an increasingly lost art. However, it is doubtful that he will be able to apply his race craft on Sunday.
“I had the privilege of running against some of the greatest super speedway runners that this sport has ever seen,” he said. “I was very lucky to come to sport when Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart and Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. taught me. I saw immediately that their IQ was exponentially higher than mine was when I was a young driver. But it is more difficult in the type of great speed today to see a high IQ.
“I know how to go run, but I know I can’t take it now because if I do it, it just won’t pay. I used to be able to race and come back (the pack) and continue. »»
The parity created by the arrival of the Gen 7 car in 2022 offered better opportunities for the owners and the drivers to put themselves in the mixture, but eliminated part of the imagination and the use to start Elite talents with lively anticipation, a feeling of writing and high -risk tolerance.
“It seems that this car may have removed certain advantages that a driver like Denny Hamlin has at the Super Speedways,” said Larry Mcreynolds, longtime analyst of Fox and former team leader, in Orlando Sentinel.
Hamlin, who is a co -owner of 23xi Racing with the NBA renowned temple Michael Jordan, also took advantage of the affordability to manage a team. However, Hamlin also wants Nascar to share more of his profits, which designs him and Jordan, to continue an antitrust trial linked to the charter agreements; A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in December to allow 23X and first row to race in 2025.
“In 20 years, I have done my best to form a positive change for sport, the one I love,” said Hamlin. “I sucked to be here when I was a child. But sometimes there is a tension that comes with change. Unfortunately, things just come to the head. »»
Hamlin, who grew up in the Nascar country outside Richmond, in Virginia, has never fallen on or off the track. Rightly, his popular podcast is called harmful actions with Denny Hamlin.
But the late JD Gibbs, son of the owner of the fame, Joe Gibbs, gave an early and talented teenager over 25 years ago. Always leading for Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin continues to reward the family’s faith while he aims to increase his 54 serial victories and capture an elusive championship of the season – each of the dozens of pilots with so many victories A A.
The chase in the 2 10 races playoffs could generate excitement until the final race, but Hamlin is not a fan. He did not put a pen on paper, so he is not sure to know if the seasons with eight, seven and six victories could have been good enough in the old format of seasonal points.
“With the circumstances that it takes to win a title, this is a process of a race,” he said. “It is easier to predict than you will be ideal for an entire season against:” I will win this only race which is on this calendar of 36 races. “We have been really good in recent years and we have not done the Final Four.
“The opportunity is there, someone will be crowned champion and we have to do our best to work the system to get there.”
This week, Toyota’s resurgence is a plus, underlined by his teammate JGR Chase Briscoe who wins pole position.
Whatever happens, Hamlin is grateful for the victory of Daytona 500 n ° 4.
“I’m afraid of the night I go to sleep and the morning I wake up that I am no longer a competitive driver,” he said. “I know it will happen at some point. History and what I have seen, it happens as a lighting switch.
“I worry that this switch goes out and when it will trigger.”
No one expects it on Sunday.
Hamlin is again among the favorites. If he is there at the end, no one would bet against him.
“Denny is a game man,” said Jimmie Johnson, 49 and a double winner. “His head space and wiring and how to look at the chances of the race, it just fits into his DNA. He does a great job in the project and takes advantage of the moments of risk in which they count and to understand when doing it.
“I don’t know exactly what it is, but there are a lot of parallels to sit at a poker table that comes into play.”
