Denny Hamlin evaluates impact of Darlington win for Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing

Denny Hamlin recognizes how important of a win Darlington was for Brad Keselowski, the No. 6 team and RFK Racing as a whole.

The veteran Keselowski ended a long winless drought, which was at over 100 races, and finally got his car to victory lane for the first time as a driver-owner at Darlington over the weekend. The impact of that moment isn’t lost on Hamlin, as he elaborated on why it’s such a huge win for the No. 6.

“I think, without a doubt, this is a huge win for the organization, for Brad,” Hamlin stated, during the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. “You know, he’s getting towards my era of age, so you’re going to want to continue to stack up the wins. I think that this was their best opportunity on speed in a race since Richmond of, whenever [Chris] Buescher won Richmond, I think that was last year.

“We’ve been saying he’s been close, and I know he’s finished second quite a few times, between then and now. But this was, by far, in my opinion, the best race-winning speed that the No. 6 team has shown. I just feel as though, in my gut, that they took advantage of this opportunity. While they’ve had some good finishes between Richmond of last year and now, I just, I never really saw them as a big threat to win the race, until they showed the speed that they did this weekend.”

Moving forward, Hamlin is expecting to have to compete with Keselowski for wins week-in and week-out, as RFK Racing is showing an improved amount of speed on all tracks, and that isn’t something the No. 11 is taking lightly.

“So, now you would say, ‘Man, these could be guys that contend on a more regular basis for wins, because they’ve figured something out, to get a little bit better.’ I know a lot of the talk in the garage is that they’ve gotten some engine upgrades, and that has helped things,” Hamlin added. “I think that there was a few Fords that caught my eye, that seemed to be stronger. But they executed.

“They stayed up front the entire race. Pit crew kept them up there, when they needed to, to let the driver do his job, and race for the win. Ended with just an amazing, big win for that whole No. 6 team.”

Denny Hamlin delivered Brad Keselowski his props, but he knows it’ll be tough racing him over the rest of the season. The No. 6 figures to be a thorn in everyone’s side moving forward, but he’s enjoying the win at Darlington, after getting the monkey off his back.