NASCAR
Pocono Raceway is a Proven Keystone for Denny Hamlin
Any way you slice it, last Sunday was a nearly-unmatched career milestone for Denny Hamlin. 50 career Cup Series victories ties the Chesterfield, Virginia native for 13th on the all-time wins list. Pocono saw Hamlin take Toyota’s 600th NASCAR National Series win, a landmark from the manufacturer’s longest-tenured driver. Hamlin also? broke a tie with Jeff Gordon to become Pocono’s standalone winningest competitor. Across Pocono’s five-plus decade history, nobody has seen more success here than Hamlin. Driver 11 now has seven Keystone State checkered flags to his name. From his rookie season 17 years ago to now, no track has been kinder to Hamlin than The Tricky Triangle. Is Pocono Hamlin’s best track across his NASCAR career? An argument can be made for this when taking a deeper dive.
To put it bluntly, Hamlin is clutch at Pocono no matter the cars, package or year. Hamlin has found Pocono’s victory lane in the Generations 4, 5, and 6 cars. Sunday now adds onto that legacy in the Next Gen era. A total of 22 top-10s here is Hamlin’s second-best single track record, falling just shy of his 24 top-10s at Martinsville. Leading 827 laps also tops all active drivers at Pocono.
The significance of such a career high mark coming at the track where he first tasted victory has not been lost on Hamlin. Only the 15th driver ever to hit 50 Premier Series wins, Hamlin is well aware this achievement puts him in rarefied air and is still embracing this moment.
“Stuff like this doesn’t sit in for a while,” Hamlin said. “I actually exchanged texts with (Matt) Kenseth over the week. We were just reminiscing about old races. I told him, definitely filling him up about how great he was. He was a great teammate. The wins that he had. He was so underrated. I told him, I was like, ‘That’s one thing that we’re always guilty of, is not appreciating it in the moment.'”
“When you retire and you got a bunch of time, you’re sitting there on your rocker on your back porch, you’re thinking about, ‘What have I accomplished in the sport?'”
“These things take a long time to sit in. They really do. We’re in the heat of the moment now.”
“It takes time. I never thought I’d get an opportunity in the Cup Series. Luckily J.D. Gibbs and Joe Gibbs both took a chance on me nearly 20 years ago. To get my 50th win, it comes down to the track that I got my first, it certainly is special.”
“I knew every weekend I go into it thinking, ‘Man, this would be the perfect weekend for it,’ because there’s always the right time to win.”
“But, I mean, there’s just little things. My old car chief, Spider, that works at Joe Gibbs Racing, found in his old toolbox my grandmother’s St. Christopher (Medal). I get in my car for practice, and it’s sitting on my dash. I’m like, I hadn’t seen that thing in forever, I thought it was lost. My mom would put that in there before the race on the dash. I sat down and said, Well, we’re winning this weekend.”
“Those things don’t happen on accident. Just really happy to win it for the team, the whole team. Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) and his team on the pit box. The guys in the war room, the guys in the fab shop. I’ve been really lucky to be part of an organization that carried me for many years to many, many victories.”
“Not everyone gets the opportunity to go from racing late models to racing for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup Series in 18 months. It’s hard to do, it really is. But luckily they believed in me, gave me time to get going, and the rest is history.”
The 2.5-mile triangle in eastern Pennsylvania can truly be labeled as a keystone for Denny Hamlin’s NASCAR journey. Pocono success has proven pivotal for Hamlin across some of his most defining seasons.
A 2006 Pocono sweep from rookie Hamlin was a stepping stone to the newcomer finishing third in points that year. 2010’s eight wins and close title loss for Hamlin also included a pit stop in Pocono’s victory lane. Championship 4 appearances in 2019 and 2020 were both punctuated with Pocono wins as well. Last season’s DQ was perhaps foreshadowing of just how close Hamlin came to another championship; the five bonus points he lost out on at Pocono would have put him through to Phoenix. 2023 has the potential to finally be the season where Hamlin breaks through onto the Championship stage.
Sunday was perhaps Hamlin’s crowning achievement, yet also his most controversial Tricky Triangle win. The 11 had to muscle his way by Kyle Larson on a restart with seven laps left, forcing the 5 up into the turn one wall. Hamlin asserts there was no contact made between the frontrunners, a claim that Larson still disputes.
Both on Sunday and last year prior to the DQ, Hamlin’s winning celebrations were met with a chorus of boos from the Pocono grandstands. The Pennsylvania fans’ displeasure with Hamlin shows that driver 11 is seen as one of the sport’s current villains.
Hamlin and Larson are two of NASCAR’s closest friends away from the track. Did Sunday set up a potential season-defining rivalry between these two title heavyweights? Only time and on-track circumstances over the following weeks will tell if Larson decides to repay this ‘favor’ from Hamlin. It should be noted that both of the 11’s wins so far in 2023 have come at Larson’s expense.
Hamlin’s feat of winningest driver ever at Pocono Raceway is not likely to be surpassed anytime soon. The next most successful active driver at Pocono is Kyle Busch, with four Tricky Triangle triumphs. His status as a Pocono Raceway master should last through the duration of Hamlin’s driving career. As Hamlin continues onward to his self-assigned goal of 60 Cup wins, expect him to always be a contender at Pocono Raceway.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
