The countdown is on for Denny Hamlin in more ways than one

The countdown has begun

You never say never, but Denny Hamlin seems to know exactly when he is going to retire, which makes seasons like this and victories like Sunday at Gateway all the more rewarding.

Hamlin will turn 45 the week after this season ends, and from the looks of it, that will leave just two more seasons after this one to accomplish all the things he wants before moving onto the next chapter of his life.

Sunday marked the first time that Hamlin publicly spoke about a defined end and he did it response to a question about how he maintains this level of focus at 44.

His answer?

“Just knowing that I put a timeline on the end,” Hamlin said. “That to me has been the number one factor. I talked to Harvick the other day. I was just like, ‘I knew exactly how many races were left.’ The countdown has begun.”

To wit, Hamlin says he doesn’t want to race well beyond his peak performance capacity. He is still very much at the top of his game with his fifth victory this season — good for 59 over the past two decades.

“I’m just not going to leave this sport on my deathbed, you know, just leaking oil, running in the back of the pack,” Hamlin said. “I have way too much pride for that. I’m way too cocky for that. There’s just no way. I want to be able to win my last race.

“To do that, I’m going to have to retire when I’m racing like this.”

That means, according to his implied timeline, that there will be two more Daytona 500s remaining, with a chance to win five of them, hypothetically. Two more chances to win his first Brickyard 400, one that means a lot to him.

That leaves roughly 70 races to go?

“Yes,” he said. “That’s correct.”

So it stands to reason that elusive championship, one that you have to consider him a favorite for now, after adding five more playoff points, is on that list, right?

Right?

“There’s certain races that I do have countdowns for (but) championships isn’t one of ’em,” Hamlin said. “Obviously, it’s well-documented that I want to get the wins, and I feel like that will carry its weight long after. When you compare me to someone that’s maybe got one or two, maybe three championships, and half the wins, I don’t think that person’s better than I am.”

But what if he does win the championship and stands at Phoenix at the very top of his game and pinnacle of accomplishments, would one of the most quotable drivers of NASCAR history consider that a walk-off, mic drop moment?

“Sure, absolutely. Sounds like a good way to end.”

Final Four Focused

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

The victory was additive for Hamlin beyond merely advancing into the Round of 12. A second-place finish would have produced the same outcome.

Hamlin is hyper-focused on what will happen in the Round of 8 and doing whatever it takes to return to the final four for the first time since 2021. It’s a round that has frequently eliminated him, usually by mere points, including his ouster at the hands of Ross Chastain ripping the fence, literally, at Martinsville in 2022.

This win gives him five more points at the start of the next round and the round after that. With each stage win and win he gets over the next four races, they all add to his start total in that third round that determines the final four.

“You’re going to need ’em,” Hamlin said. “We’re going to need ’em. I don’t think I’ve ever had a stress-free third round. It’s all been close on points. There’s been opportunities where 2019 Phoenix where I had to win there to make it to Homestead to have a chance.

“I’ve never cruised through that third round. It doesn’t matter which racetrack it’s been, it always gets tight there. Now that you got a superspeedway in it, who knows.”

To his point, having Talladega in the Round of 8 makes having bonus points all the more important.

“I remember last year, I was minus 50, something like that,” Hamlin said. “I’m cruising around on the other side of the track. I’ve lost the draft. That’s when the entire field crashed and it just went from, Oh, my God, I’m out, to, Oh, now I’m sitting pretty.

“It changes that quick. You just never know. With Talladega being in the second-to-last round, I just don’t know how many points you would have to have to feel comfortable going into that round. It’s certainly more than 34.”

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Sitting pretty

Hamlin was not the only person to join Chase Briscoe as locked-in on Sunday as Kyle Larson crossed the 52-point threshold and will advance purely as a result of taking the green flag in the Bristol Night Race.

His incident with Ryan Blaney notwithstanding, Larson ran up front all day, scored a generous amount of points for what looked like a return to form for the first time in months for the Hendrick No. 5 team.

“Our car was great and I’m happy with that and happy with the improvement and it was a solid weekend, all around,” Larson said. “We took a massive step in the right direction. I would love to get to Phoenix to see.

“I’m proud of this team. It’s been a struggle here and on this type of track but it’s been a struggle all summer at a lot of places lately.”

He ultimately had to settle for a 12th-place due to some damage incurred running third on a restart but that was inconsequential in the big picture.

“It wasn’t the finish we were looking for but we looked like the 5 team for the first time in awhile today,” Larson said.

Even though Chase Briscoe locked-in with his Southern 500, he also added a playoff point in winning the first stage on Sunday, which means over the course of two races, he’s added six points to his starting point in the Round of 12.

Updated Playoff Grid

Denny Hamlin Adv
Chase Briscoe Adv
Kyle Larson +60
Bubba Wallace +50
Ryan Blaney +42
William Byron +39
Tyler Reddick +37
Christopher Bell +32
Chase Elliott +28
Joey Logano +21
Ross Chastain +19
Austin Cindric +11
—
Austin Dillon -11
Shane Van Gisbergen -15
Alex Bowman -35
Josh Berry -45

Below the cut

Purely from a playoff perspective, it was largely a repeat of Darlington in that a handful of themes carried over into Gateway on Sunday afternoon.

Everything that can go wrong for Alex Bowman, is
Shane Van Gisbergen just isn’t quite a finished product yet on ovals
Josh Berry was bit again by an early issue
Despite their best efforts to mitigate it, Austin Dillon just doesn’t have enough

As a result, these are the four below the cutline with Bowman and Berry more or less facing must-win odds.

In the case of Berry, it was an incident with Chase Elliott, where his No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Mustang got sent into the wall sandwiched alongside Joey Logano.

“Obviously, a little chaos there after the restart,” Berry said. “I was behind (Zane Smith) and Joey and had to give a little space. Chase was able to get in there and it looked like he got a little bit loose and slid up into us.

“Obvious, it’s unfortunate but I don’t think … it’s one of those things that happen.”

At 45 points back, winning is practically the only way into the Round of 8.

“We have no choice,” Berry said. “It’s been a rough couple of weeks but out guys are working really hard and we just have to do the best we can.”

Meanwhile, Alex Bowman simply had no speed all race, and when given a strategy that would have given him a chance to race for a top-10’s worth of points, he was caught speeding at the end of pit road.

He finished 26th.

Bowman said as far as he was concerned, he didn’t speed, because he didn’t trigger his speeding lights on his side.

“It was just really poor execution on all angles today,” Bowman said. “It was a bummer. I thought our No. 48 Ally Chevrolet was okay once we were kind of towards the front-half. We just struggled in the back. Super frustrating, but all we can do is keep digging.

“There’s a lot of people working really hard to continue to be better. I thought, race car-wise, we were heading in the right direction once we had some air on it. We just have to go to Bristol and go to work.”

‘SVG’ spent much of the day taking alternative strategies to try to score stage points. He largely held his own at the end of both stages, even though he didn’t score any points. Then he got aggressive on a Lap 157 restart and went around outside of the rubber.

It was a day of directional progress but that’s just not enough to move into the next round.

“We were too tight in traffic, and then eventually got on the other side of it and I made an error and spun,” Van Gisbergen said. “We just couldn’t get it back. We weren’t amazing. We were probably a 15th-place car, but then detuned it a little bit and ended up where we did.

“Little frustrating, but it’s kind of where we’re at. 20th and 15th is a huge improvement for us, but obviously in the playoffs, you expect more. There’s that pressure there.”

200 for Toyota

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

There were a couple of OEM replated accolades in the achievement for Hamlin too.

The win was the 200th in the Cup Series for Toyota Racing Development, and the culmination of so many relationships for Toyota group vice president and TRD vice president and general manager Tyler Gibbs.

“It’s a testament to what’s gone in over, what is it, the last 19 years,” Gibbs said. “The team we have at TRD, the team we have at TMNA, the team we have on the track. When you look at JGR, 23XI, Furniture Row, Red Bull and Michael Waltrip Racing combining for over 200 wins is just incredible for us.”

This was win No. 56 for Hamlin in a Toyota, which ties Kyle Busch for the most all-time for the manufacturer.

“Yeah, it does,” Hamlin said. “The next few wins, knock on wood, if I can get some, are going to be very special for me. This is the next step to getting that done.”

This also means that all but three of Hamlin’s wins at the highest level have come with Toyota. Hamlin was unsure about the switch from Chevrolet to Toyota at the time but since then, they have been a top-tier program, and Hamlin has since launched his own team, 23XI, with the manufacturer as well.

“Yeah, it’s super special because they’ve been such a big partner of Joe Gibbs Racing for such a long time,” Hamlin said. “Certainly I was worried when we switched over, gosh, felt like about 16, 17 years ago, somewhere in that range, from Chevy to Toyota.

“Obviously it was a big leap of faith by everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. The drivers were kind of like an innocent bystander in it, right? We were going to live and die by those situations that JGR made on that day. It turned out to be the best partnership that they could imagine, being the top team.

“Now that I’ve got 23XI, I formed a different relationship with them. So yeah, I’ve got Toyota running through my blood both top and bottom.”

Read Also: