HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Denny Hamlin’s confidence is peaking.
One strong performance in the 36th and final race of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season stands between him and his first career championship after 14 years at the sport’s highest level. He won his sixth race of the year six days ago at ISM Raceway near Phoenix to secure his place among the final Championship 4 contenders.
Ahead of Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hamlin is excited but not nervous. He’s relaxed and actually feels like he already won.
“We won Homestead last week,” Hamlin said Thursday. “That was our win-or-go-home race. We performed at an incredibly high level. We have now a free weekend to go out there and have fun and keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ll have a chance by the end of the night because we have all year long as long as we do the same thing.”
Hamlin is joined in the final four by two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick. He doesn’t have win the race to claim the championship; he just has to finish higher than the other three —although the last five champions have also taken the checkered flag.
Hamlin almost didn’t make it
With 19 top-5 finishes so far, Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota has been consistently strong all season. He opened the year with his second Daytona 500 win and took checkered flags at Pocono Raceway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway’s playoff race in October.
But until Sunday, he and his team were on the brink of elimination. He had a poor finish at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago and entered the Phoenix race one spot below the four-driver cutoff line. And then he dominated, leading 143 of 312 laps on his way to the win.
“I’ve been eliminated from the playoffs many, many ways,” said Hamlin, who is tied for 22nd on the all-time wins list with 37 and the most successful driver without a title.
“The craziest [expletive] has happened to me to keep me from winning championships. Texas was on me. I was going to hate that I was going to be responsible for ending our chance at a championship.”
Hoping third time’s a charm
This is Hamlin’s third real shot at winning it all. He was the runner-up in 2010 to Jimmie Johnson after the title slipped away in the final two races. He said he wasn’t having any fun by the end of that season.
Then in 2014, he finished third in the standings, behind champion Harvick and Ryan Newman, when his car wasn’t running well. Hamlin said he was just happy to be in contention.
But this year is different in so many ways. He said he’s not angry or stressed like in past playoff or championship-contending years. Everything feels “nicer and friendlier,” and he’s “not as agitated” this time around.
He said his confidence has never been higher — “not even in 2010 when we were really fast every week.”
Bouncing back from a career-low
Hamlin’s six checkered flags this season follow a winless 2018 — a first for him as a full-time Cup driver. He still made the playoffs but finished 11th in the standings.
“If you go through a whole year like he did last year and not win a race, the rumors start,” team owner Joe Gibbs said Friday. “‘Is this guy over the hill?’ I think Denny was fighting through that, saying that’s not the case. …
“I think that we all know that people mature and grow up. Different things happen in their life, and so I think Denny is — I think he’s in a part in his life where he says, ‘I get a second chance really in a lot of ways,’ and he’s making the most of it.”
This year, Hamlin, who turns 39 Monday, is also paired with a new crew chief, Chris Gabehart, after three seasons with Mike Wheeler, and Gibbs said he noticed the positive effect Gabehart has had on the their driver.
Gabehart, 38, “brings out the best” in him, whether he’s a calming voice of reason or pumping him up moments before a green flag flies, Hamlin said.
Even Busch detects the chemistry between Hamlin and Gabehart, who was once a mechanical engineer for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
“Something’s a little bit different with Denny,” Busch said Thursday. “[Gabehart has] done a really, really good job of whether you want to say flipping Denny into the right frame of mind or whatever. But he’s just been a really good leader, and Denny’s been a good listener.”
Hamlin vs. the NASCAR champions
Under NASCAR’s current playoff format, this is Hamlin’s second appearance in the Championship 4 after 2014. But that’s nothing compared with Harvick, Busch and Truex, who are also all past champs.
Harvick won his title in 2014 and has made it to the final four in five of the last six years. Same goes for Busch, the 2015 champ, but his five appearances have been consecutive since his title season. And Truex made it in four of the last five years, winning it all in 2017.
But Hamlin knows how to win at Homestead. In 14 starts, he has two wins — the other three have one each — and was the last driver finish first without winning it all (2013). He’s also earned four top-5 finishes and nine top 10s.
He’ll start on the pole Sunday, followed by Harvick, Truex, Busch and the rest of the 40-car field.
“I’m excited because I know I’ve got the opportunity, a really, really good, legit opportunity to go out there and get it done,” Hamlin said. “I’m just going to do the same things, prepare the same way that I have all year. I know that will give me a chance.
“At some point in the race, I’m going to have an opportunity to take control and win the race. As long as I continue to do that, I’ll live with the result, win or lose.”
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