Denny Hamlin names surprising driver who could advance in NASCAR playoffs from below cutline

After an exhilarating Round of 16, Denny Hamlin and the rest of the playoff drivers who advanced to the Round of 12 are ready to re-rack and get going again this weekend.

It’s another three race shootout, before the field will shrink by four once again, beginning with this weekend’s race at Kansas. Due to his impressive regular season, Hamlin is in P6, seven points above the cut-line, but four other wheelmen weren’t as lucky — Austin Cindric (-4), Daniel Suarez (-6), Alex Bowman (-7) and Chase Briscoe (-7) are all fighting for their playoff lives moving forward.

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On the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin stated his belief regarding which drivers below the cut-line can make it to the Round of 8, and it’s evident he’s not counting out any of the four starting from behind.

“Alex Bowman. Yeah, I’ll go Bowman,” Hamlin stated, believing the Hendrick Motorsports star has the best shot of the four. “I think (he) has the most capability of speed. I think Kansas is a good race track for him. I think the Roval is good for him, and I think that at Talladega, he’s going to have some support, some Chevrolet support around him. So, my vote would go Bowman, as moving on.”

While Hamlin believes in Bowman more than the other three choices, he added his opinion that at least two of the four will move on to the Round of 8: “Truthfully, it would not shock me if any one of those four move on,” he said. “Like, the bigger question, or the bet is, how many of them move on? … Two is the number, I think. Two of them in, two of them out.”

Alas, it remains to be seen which drivers will lock themselves into the Round of 8 over the next three weeks, but Denny Hamlin and the rest of the playoff field are ready for anything and everything the races will throw at them, as Kansas, Talladega and the Charlotte Roval should provide some quality entertainment.

How Denny Hamlin can win the Cup Series championship

Meanwhile, Denny Hamin is seeking his first Cup Series championship as a driver, and now it looks like he has a shot. On The Teardown podcast, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic explained how the veteran driver can take home the title. 

“They can absolutely win the championship, absolutely. I mean, they could win, they could win at Talladega or Kansas and it would not be a surprise,” Bianchi said. “Then, you go into Round Three, they could win at any of those three tracks. They could win at Vegas, Homestead or Martinsville, and they sure as hell can win at Phoenix. They can absolutely win the championship.

“Are they snakebit a little bit? Absolutely. Have they not had the finishes that correspond with their speed? Yes. Are they to the level they were at — the same level they were at earlier in the year? No, they’re not. But this still, this team, is still so good, and while consistency is great, and you can point your way to the next round, this team is also good enough to win a race, and if that’s what they need to do, I feel like they’re going to do it.”

While Denny Hamlin has gone from championship contender to the veteran driver trying to surprise some people over the course of the 2024 season, count out the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman at your own risk. Jordan Bianchi certainly isn’t.