CONCORD, N.C.: The Playoffs haven’t gone as Denny Hamlin or his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team has hoped, but through the ebbs and flows of the first five races of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Hamlin heads into Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Road Course with a 30-point cushion over the cutline.
And while that pad over 12th in the Cup Series standings would typically not be a super cause of concern heading into an elimination race, Hamlin said Saturday that he hopes his advantage above the cutline would propel him to the Round of 8 – if he doesn’t have any trouble at the newly reconfigured 17-turn, 2.28-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL™.
“If I don’t have a horrible day, yes. But I’ve had horrible days here,” said Hamlin. “I feel better about it than I did with five to go at Talladega, certainly. I think that I just have to do my part in all of this. That starts today and goes on to tomorrow and I just need to do my job to best of my ability, and if so, then we will be fine.
“If not, we will see how it all stacks up, but 30 points – if you would have asked me before Talladega, would you be alright with 30 points to the good going to the ROVAL, I would have said yes.”
This season, the three-time Cup Series winner has an average finish of 13.8 in his 2024 Playoff run.
Hamin, 43, squeaked into the Round of 12 after botched races at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, where the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota found themselves on the wrong side of track position and collected in race accidents.
A season-defying fourth-place finish proved to be enough to leap Hamlin into the second round of the Playoff, where he delivered an average finish of ninth after an eighth-place finish at Kansas Speedway and avoiding the late race chaos at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway by finishing 10th.
Last Sunday at Talladega, what appeared to be a disastrous Stage 3 flipped into an advantage for Hamlin, who was nearly 25 seconds behind the lead pack when the “big one” erupted three laps from the initially scheduled distance.
Instead of finishing in the higher 20s, Hamlin recorded his 15th top-10 of the season.
However, the field will tackle a new layout on Sunday, which has raised concerns about tighter corners and the potential for chaos to erupt.
Hamlin realizes he’ll have to adapt his driving style to the new track and hopes to avoid madness.
“It will certainly be different for sure,” explained Hamlin. “As time goes on, everyone is going to adapt their style to a very similar style, as we do on most tracks. It is inviting to go in there and dive bomb, and that will get rewarded sometimes, and sometimes it won’t.
“It is the same track for everyone, someone is going to win, so you just hope you are it.”
Like most road courses this season, track position has proven vital. Hamlin believes his starting position will be critical to the strategy and, hopefully, to earning stage points.
“It will have a factor – no doubt about it,” sounded Hamlin. “A lot of it also depends on who is in front of you in the qualifying order and what is their agenda.
“I probably won’t know what Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) will do coming out of the back chicane, and we are coming to two to go, and does he call me to pit road or not – a lot of that is waiting and seeing what does the competition do, how many points can you get, and so yes.
“Today is the start of your strategy, and it can alter based on what we do today.”
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