Anonymous NASCAR driver shades Denny Hamlin, championship potential

With the NASCAR Playoffs around the corner the question once again comes up, is this the season that Denny Hamlin wins a championship? For the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, it is about the only thing he has yet to win in the Cup Series.

At this point in his career, Denny Hamlin has only a limited number of seasons to achieve the ultimate goal. It didn’t help him to get penalized right before the end of the regular season, either.

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Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports anonymously polled NASCAR Playoff drivers during media day. Their responses are a little eye-opening.

When it comes to Hamlin and his championship hopes, his peers in the postseason believe in him. 12 drivers believe he will win a championship before he is retired and four responded that he would not.

“If you asked 10 years ago, a resounding yes,” one anonymous driver replied.

Another said: “He’s obviously a really good racecar driver. A very smart racer. Probably understands a lot of the sport as good or better than anyone else because he gets to see both sides of it. He’s put himself in that position many times. You’d think eventually the odds would work in his favor.”

Then, there was the comparison Denny Hamlin has been trying to avoid…

“I don’t really know if he will or not. He’s plenty of good enough too. It just seems like something has always happened. It’s surprising he hasn’t already. Maybe he won’t because it was also surprising Mark Martin never did.”

Becoming the Mark Martin of his generation is something Hamlin is trying hard to dodge. But until he gets that championship, the 52-time race winner will hear those comparisons over and over again.

Is this his year?

Denny Hamlin is hoping this is his year

The first 15 races of the regular season were great for Denny Hamlin. He looked like the best driver in the NASCAR Cup Series. Wins at Bristol, Richmond, and Dover, and then five straight top-5s from Dover to Gateway.

In the eleven races since then, Sonoma to Darlington, Hamlin had no wins. He had only two top-5s and two top-10s. He still had speed, but issues on track, wrecks, engine issues, and more got in the way of his success.

Heading to Atlanta, Hamlin has to make it to the finish line. There are going to be one or two, maybe more, playoff drivers that get involved in a wreck and take a big hit in the points.

Entering the NASCAR Playoffs as the six seed, Denny Hamlin has to be careful. One early DNF or two rough races in the first round can put him in a hole that he isn’t able to come out of.