Denny Hamlin is leading the pack this season — except when it really counts
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
A quick look at the NASCAR Cup Series standings shows that after nine races, one driver in his own zip code.
But even though Denny Hamlin has carved out his own space, he doesn’t have a trophy to go with it.
Hamlin’s 434 points earned – an average of more than 48 out of a possible 60 per race — mark the most any driver has scored in the first nine races since the current points system was established in 2017. But there’s that big goose egg in the win column that has to gnaw at the Joe Gibbs Racing driver a little.
It might not have bothered Hamlin as much prior to Sunday at Richmond Raceway, where he was the leader on a restart with 12 laps remaining, only to be passed two laps later by Alex Bowman – whose only previous lap led this year was the opening lap of the Daytona 500.
Hamlin has led a series-high 694 laps this year.
"We should have won," Hamlin said after the bitter loss at what he considers his hometown track. "Certainly, the 48 [of Bowman] wasn't better than us all day.
"We’ve just got to lead the last lap. You've got to figure out how to lead the last lap. That's pretty much all that matters."
Actually, it isn't all that matters when looking at the big picture. Drivers in Hamlin’s position have to take the view that given the number of times they come close to winning, the wins will come. Racing, like all sports, can be cruel, and Hamlin has often left the track feeling a combination of satisfaction and emptiness.
The winner of 44 Cup races in his career, Hamlin indicated that he still would choose to be having the season he is having, in which — at least until Richmond — he and his JGR team had gotten the most out of his equipment.
"It's a double-edged sword," Hamlin said. "You're upset in the moment. You feel like you should capitalize when you have great cars.
"But in the big picture, we are running very strong and in contention each week. It's mixed emotions."
Hamlin’s season of mixed emotions started with a fifth place in the Daytona 500, in which he attempted to earn his third consecutive victory in NASCAR’s biggest race. He followed that with a third on the Daytona road course.
Then came his one "blemish" of sorts. He was 11th at Homestead, where he sped on pit road with 60 laps remaining, losing valuable track position with the penalty.
He has since rattled off six consecutive top-four finishes: fourth at Las Vegas, third at Phoenix, fourth at Atlanta, third on Bristol dirt, third at Martinsville and second at Richmond.
"We definitely would like to have [wins], for sure," Hamlin said after Martinsville. "But the way we're running, we can win any given week. We've just got beat by one or two cars each and every week that have just hit the set up a little bit better than we did."
It isn't just race finishes in which Hamlin has run well. He has finished in the top-10 in all but one stage (at Homestead, he had to drop to the rear prior to the race). He has a series-best five stage wins to go with three seconds, five thirds, two fourths, a fifth and a ninth.
"Honestly, we've been really close," he said after Martinsville. "But each time, I feel like that's the best we could do that day.
"We're not losing with dominant cars."
Richmond might have been a little different, as Hamlin led 207 of the 400 laps.
"I don't know if we had a dominant car," he said after the bitter finish. "It was definitely top-two. There were times the 19 [of Martin Truex Jr.] was better, times the 22 [of Joey Logano] was better."
Hamlin trailed Logano when the late caution came out at Richmond, but his pit crew got him out in the lead. It was another sign that Hamlin, who has never won the championship, has all the pieces to make a serious run.
"We're executing phenomenal," he said. "We just haven't had that dominant car that we've had a few times last year that we just beat up on everyone."
In his 16th Cup season, Hamlin, who won seven times last year, is remaining philosophical. Then again, what else can he do — beyond throw a few curse words over his in-car radio in the moment, as he did at Richmond — when he was a factor in the outcome but doesn't get to celebrate afterward?
"My goal is to make sure I do the best that I can as a driver, do everything that I possibly can to win, not make mistakes. ... All you can do is concentrate on your job," Hamlin said. "Chris will concentrate on his, making the car better.
"Pit crew is getting better every single week. Everyone, as long as they stay calm and continue to focus on their job, nothing more — we're going to continue to get better."
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Thinking Out Loud
Jimmie Johnson finished 19th in his IndyCar debut Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. Few who have paid attention to his testing were surprised that he struggled (he started 21st).
It is not an easy transition — even for a talented driver such as Johnson — to go from a 3,400-pound stock car to a 1,700-pound IndyCar that runs similar horsepower at a higher RPM, along with a braking system that is much more precise. Don’t judge Johnson on his performance Sunday.
He talked about how much fun he had and joked about not starting last, which shows that he knows how big a learning curve – a mountain? – he has. Don’t mistake that for a desire to be competitive.
Judge him at the end of the season to see if he improves. If he doesn’t, does that tarnish his image?
Maybe a little, but anyone with Johnson's résumé would take a little bit of a tarnished image to fulfill bucket lists of the cars he wants to race, and an IndyCar sure fits that bill for Johnson.
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Stat of Note
Alex Bowman’s victory at Richmond was the first win for the No. 48 car since June 2017 with Jimmie Johnson at Dover.
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They Said It
"When we drove away, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what's happening?’" — Richmond winner Alex Bowman
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Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!