DOVER, Del. – Denny Hamlin and Miles the Monster have never quite meshed.
Hamlin has never conquered Dover, but he and the track share a special connection this weekend: Hamlin’s 500th career Cup Series start coincides with the track’s centennial race. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota also qualified on the pole for Sunday’s race.
In 27 starts at Dover, Hamlin has just four top fives and 11 top-10 finishes. He finished 21st earlier this year and was second to Chase Elliott in this race a year ago.
“There’s just some racetracks that don’t necessarily suit your style quite as much, and this has just been one of them over the course of my career,” Hamlin said. “Really, I have to learn how to drive differently and erase 20-something years of habits when I come to this racetrack. So it’s very difficult but I feel like we’ve done a good job of that so far this weekend.”
The biggest challenge behind the wheel at Dover for Hamlin stems from his roots.
“I think I’m generally a short-track guy that works on being easy on entry and hard on the exit,” Hamlin said. “This is a racetrack that kind of rewards the opposite of that. So I think that retraining my brain and my technique when I come here is what I have to do.”
In the lead up to his 500th start, Hamlin, a 35-time winner at the premier level and a four-time winner this season, has been sharing videos on social media recapping his top five moments and his “not top five” races.
One race that didn’t make the list? The 2010 Goody’s Headache Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
“We pitted with three or four laps to go, something like that, restarted ninth and came back and won,” Hamlin said. “We had a caution that really helped us get back up to the front, but that was just one where I thought we had given the race away and the next thing you know, we come back and win it.”
Source: NASCAR Wire Service
