Two-time Southern 500 winner Denny Hamlin is hoping Darlington Raceway will be the spark he needs to launch the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team into the NASCAR Playoffs.
Along with his first victory at the track dubbed “Too Tough To Tame” in 2010, Hamlin heads into Sunday’s Bojangles Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the defending winner. With two races to go in the regular season, Hamlin sits 13th in the playoff standings with a 214-point cushion above the cutline.
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If there’s a repeat season winner at Darlington, then Hamlin would lock into the playoffs based on points. But breaking into Victory Lane for his first victory of 2018 would do the same and bank bonus points for the postseason. Plus, a victory would extend Hamlin’s streak of notching at least one win in each of his full-time seasons to 13 years.
“We feel very confident,” Hamlin told NASCAR.com. “We’re going to make the playoffs. We know that. But we want to get a win. We haven’t gone this deep into the season without winning in a long time. We have some work to do. We have to perform better on race day.”
Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team have shown the speed is there to be a threat each week, but he admits it’s the execution that has suffered.
“We’ve been practicing well, qualifying well, just have to put it all together in the race,” Hamlin said. “Not have first-lap crashes like we had (at Bristol). I really am looking forward to getting there (Darlington) and getting in a rhythm and hopefully have a nice, smooth weekend with no issues.”
In 12 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races at Darlington, Hamlin holds an average finish of 5.8 with seven top fives, 10 top 10s and no finishes outside the top 20. Aside from teammate Erik Jones’ fifth-place average finish (in his lone start), Hamlin’s average finish is the best in the field, with Kyle Larson next at 8.8.
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Last year, a late-race battle with Martin Truex Jr. for the win played right into Hamlin’s hands. With Truex on older tires, Hamlin chased him down inside the final 20 laps. With three circuits remaining, Hamlin passed Truex into Turn 3 as the No. 78 car slammed the wall with a cut tire, allowing Hamlin to cruise to victory.
Bottom line is the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has a knack for putting himself in position to win, no matter how the season is going up to that point. Hamlin believes it’s his driving style on the 1.366-mile oval that gives him a leg up on the competition.
“Every time we go there, we have a lot of success,” Hamlin said. “There’s no reason why this should be any different. We go there with a mindset of winning every single week, but Darlington is a race track that I know particularly that I have a driver’s advantage there because I have had the success and I feel like I do things there that give me an advantage.”
