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INSIGHT: Playing the playoff game to near perfection

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | September 28, 2021 12:22 PM ET

Denny Hamlin and Chris Gabehart told everyone they could do this.

One of the best teams during the regular season — and until Kyle Larson’s summer hot streak, the best team in the NASCAR Cup Series — the only thing missing was a win. Hamlin and his crew chief won stages and dominated races, but victories slipped through their fingers. But the two remained steadfast in their confidence that the No. 11 Toyota Camry was good enough to win on any given weekend.

Through four playoff races, there has been no better team. Hamlin has won two of the four races and has not finished worse than ninth. He’s led laps in all four races for a total of 545, and has been out front in five of the eight stages.

In four races, Hamlin has added 15 playoff points to his total.

“Well, my crew chief would say I missed out on two more wins in the first round,” Hamlin says. “We should have won all of ‘em. I can’t disagree; we probably should have won every race so far in the playoffs. I guess I heard out there we’ve led a third of the laps so far in the playoffs. We’re good.

“We knew that this is what we’re capable of. Really, we’ve shown this all year long. It shows in laps led, top fives, top 10s. For whatever reason, whether it be bad luck, mistakes on our own, we haven’t got all the bunches of wins that we’ve had in the past. Hopefully, this is the start of a really good run.”
Early round wins have left Gabehart (above) and the rest of No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team with little to stress about thus far. Logan Whitton/Motorsport Images

A win at Darlington assured Hamlin a spot in the Round of 12. A win at Las Vegas assures him a place in the Round of 8. The driver who came into the postseason being asked if there was a path to the championship without winning is now being asked if he’s become the favorite.

“I don’t care,” Hamlin says. “Nothing matters. You have to play the game. It doesn’t matter who’s the favorite; you have to play. Again, we were dominant last year. [Kevin] Harvick was dominant last year. He didn’t even make the final four. We squeaked in and finished fourth. That’s all we had for car speed.

“This championship is made in one race. It’s so different than it used to be. Our goal going into the year was to make the final four, because it’s really, really hard to predict what can happen in one particular race.

“But favorite? I don’t know. I like our chances on a Phoenix-type track, that’s for sure.”

There is a long way to go to just get to Phoenix, and the championship is a one-race affair. Anything can happen on that day. For now, Hamlin and company can revel in not only again getting the jump on the competition into the next round, but finally backing up what they’ve said all year long.

“It’s just such an advantage to win any race in the playoffs, but certainly the first race of any round because — especially this round — you look at Talladega and Charlotte, you can’t stress enough,” Gabehart says. “Every one of these race teams are professional, so they deal with the stress and the pressure. They handle it. But it’s there. It exists. You can’t look past it; it’s real. We’ve only had to deal with that for what will be two of the first six races of the playoffs.

“Certainly, our team’s been really capable all year long. Every metric other than the win column has been astounding for our team. It’s really been our best year together thus far. You stay up front as much as we have, the wins are going to finally come. They’re coming at the right time.”

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Hamlin has all of the momentum – and none of the spotlight

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 12, 2021 1:01 PM ET

Denny Hamlin is putting together an unmemorable postseason. In the best way possible.

“It’s been interesting, we’ve had six playoff races, and only two of them have mattered to me,” Hamlin said over the weekend. “It’s just different that we were able to… not take off, but really mentally take off for four weeks in the middle of our playoffs. That’s how the format is, and we’ve been very fortunate to win the early races. That’s given us the liberty that we’ve got to go out there and enjoy (the Roval), and our focus has been shifted to the Round of 8 and how we can win at those tracks.”

It’s been well documented by now how Hamlin’s season has unfolded. Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team tore through the regular season, but faced criticism for the various race wins that slipped through their fingers. Hamlin also lost the regular-season championship to a red-hot Kyle Larson in the final few weeks.

Except, it mattered more to outsiders than the team, because the stat sheet gave them the confidence that they were still legitimate championship contenders. It didn’t take long for that to finally show up in the form of trophies.

In the opening race of the playoffs, Hamlin quieted everyone with a dominant win at Darlington. Three weeks later, it was more of the same when Hamlin won at Las Vegas. Both wins locked him into the next round of the postseason right off the bat. In the first four races, Hamlin led 545 laps with an average finish of 3.25.

With those victories in the bag, the other two races in each round became stress-free; exercises in keeping up momentum than needing points. But they haven’t stopped chasing finishes.

Through the first two rounds and six races, Hamlin showed the form he had early in the year with impressive consistency. Hamlin’s finished no worse than ninth, won twice, and led laps in each race for a total of 576.
Hamlin (right) celebrates his first win as a team owner after Bubba Wallace (left) earned his and 23XI Racing’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega. Lesley Ann Miller/Motorsport Images

Aside from the wins, it could be argued that Hamlin’s barely been mentioned. There’s been no need to, because there’s been plenty to follow with other playoff drivers fighting for their postseason lives or with each other. Hamlin’s driver and team, Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing, was the center of attention after a big day at Talladega.

For Hamlin, it’s the calmest and quietest playoff run he’s had.

“It is because a lot of the media focus shifts to who’s going to be in and who’s going to be out, the top four in and out,” Hamlin said. “Rightfully so, that’s where the intensity really ramps up for those teams, and it’s an interesting storyline.”

Without much to worry about or things going wrong, it has also provided a good mental space for Hamlin and his team

“No doubt,” he said. “All it does is fuel me to want to win the first race next week as well, because I know how good it’s been. It would be counterinitiative to say, well, then you lose your focus. But Vegas showed we locked right back in, and our performance has still been very, very good in the playoffs.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s been a meaningful race for us or not. We’ve acquired more points than anybody else this season. Doesn’t matter if it’s the full regular season or through the playoffs, we’re still on top, and hopefully, we can continue that for four more weeks.”

The future Hall of Famer is working on a career year regardless of his final points position. With his time spent at the front at the Roval on Sunday afternoon, Hamlin has set a new personal mark for most laps led in a season (1,397). His next two finishes inside the top 10 will set a new mark in that category, as will three more top-five finishes.

Hamlin is a winner at each of the three tracks coming up that will set the Championship 4. He has been among the four drivers competing for a championship three times, including the last two years.

“I certainly feel like there’s been less pressure even though I feel like we’ve been at the top all year long,” Hamlin said. “For whatever reason, it’s just been a pretty easy year when it’s come to the pressures of are you going to win your first (race) or whatever it might be. I know that each and every week, I give it my best effort, and I never go home any week after a race saying I didn’t do my best.

“I’m going to have to deal with the result because I can’t change it, and as long as I do my job to the best of my ability, that’s going to give us our best shot, and I’m fine either way. I wish I could win 36 weeks of the year. Ultimately, that’s my goal every year going in: win every week and get to the final four somehow.”