Denny Hamlin: the ‘New 1’ in NASCAR Championship battle at Homestead-Miami Speedway

By Jerry Jordan, Editor

MIAMI, FL – In 2018 Joey Logano described the #NASCAR Championship 4 battle as “The Big 3 (Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr.) and Me (Logano).” This year, Busch is bestowing the moniker of “The Big 3 and the New 1” (Denny Hamlin) as much looks the same for the season finale, save Hamlin’s foray into the battle.

Making the cut with his clutch win this past weekend at ISM Raceway near Phoenix, Hamlin is the only driver in the final four to not have a NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Harvick won his in 2014. Busch overcame enormous odds to win his title after missing part of the season for injuries sustained in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona in 2015. And Truex picked up his championship in 2017 for the now-defunct Furniture Row Racing team based in Denver, Co.

For Hamlin, there’s a certain amount of pride and redemption on the line. In 2010, Hamlin went into the championship race leading the points and left disappointed. Some say other drivers got in Hamlin’s head and took him off his game. In 2014, Hamlin looked like he might have the race on lockdown with a strategy call but when the caution came out, he didn’t pit and was chased down by Harvick and runner-up Ryan Newman. It was the first year of the Championship 4 playoff format and Harvick and Busch have been in the mix every year. Truex has made the cut four out of the past five years.

“I think the format has been in place for five years, and you look at how many times these three have made it to the final four under different rules packages, different cars, different everything,” Hamlin said. “They have been the standard year-in and year-out. You’ve seen one or two guys poke in that final four here and there, but I think it would be most gratifying if we did win because this is the best. This is by far the best in any category you can try to put together. So certainly, it would mean more because of that reason.”

Looking back on the 2014 upset, Hamlin said at the time he wouldn’t have done anything differently. But now, he seems like he is a new racer. Other drivers have taken note, even his teammates.

“Wouldn’t say more focus, but just something’s – yeah, something’s a little bit different with Denny,” Busch said. “He’s obviously done a really good job this year and Chris Gabehart (crew chief) coming on board and him and the chemistry and the relationship between those two, I think it started off very matter of factually when Gabehart had his first discussions with Denny and how all that went down.”

Hamlin also gives a lot of the credit for his recent success to his crew chief, saying he “balances” him out and he also walked back some comments he made last week in Phoenix, where he said he and Gabehart weren’t friends. While they may not be besties they have a relationship away from racing; however, Gabehart is an ultra-focused individual.

“I mean, certainly I documented last week that we’re not great friends off the racetrack,” Hamlin said. “That’s probably not completely true. We do talk about other things other than racing. We call each other in the middle of the week.  Sometimes it’s just (to) kick it. Probably not a fair statement to say we’re just professional partners in this and that’s it. I think he brings out the best in me. That is absolutely for sure. I always think about every time I suit up or I get in the racecar, I buckle in, he comes to the window and talks to me. I feel like this has just been something he’s rehearsed, just the speech to pump me up.

“It’s so funny, he’ll leave, and the guy that puts my wind nets up, ‘Wonder how long he spent practicing that?’ He never is short of motivation. I think that’s really one of his strong suits. You hear it on the radio, too, right? Kind of never lets me get out too far one way. He guides you back in the lane.”