The historic Brickyard has been one of those tracks where Denny Hamlin has been unable to make his mark in an extensive two-decade NASCAR career. As it happens, road courses have tended to be Denny’s weakness, albeit a solitary Watkins Glen victory in 2016 could make many argue otherwise.

But although the 54-time race winner has had limited opportunities to test himself on IMS’ 2.439-mile Road Circuit, his performances at the 2.5-mile speedway haven’t been much better. Nevertheless, fresh off an emphatic victory at Dover, Denny has revealed an interesting development in his preparations for a better outing as The Brickyard 400 returns after three years. And in an interesting twist, he might even get a chance to help NASCAR with some ‘tire issues’ when all of it ends.

Denny Hamlin sets some lofty goals at The Brickyard after Dover victory

Pursuing glory ruthlessly, Hamlin is presented with the comparison of his 2023 season against his current run of form. By this time last year, Denny had zero race wins, ironically breaking a 32-race winless streak at Kansas in early May. He would end his season with three victories, ultimately failing to make the Championship 4. This year, the Chesterfield, VA native already has three race wins and in conversation with co-host Jared Allen on Actions Detrimental, Hamlin announced, “See that’s not enough though. That’s not upto our standards as far as race wins in a season. So we’re probably just on schedule now when it comes to what we expect. Now we set some high expectations. Lots of guys take three wins and move on each year. But not us. Too high expectations.”

With the conversations rolling on further, Jared Allen referred to the recent discussion between Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck on their own podcast, ‘The Teardown’ where the renowned motorsports journalists would provide their expert analysis following Dover’s audacious aerodynamic advances. As Allen would explain, “They were just hypothetically speaking, you know, how many could the #11 team potentially win by the end of the year?” 

Denny Hamlin then left his co-host and many spellbound with a shocking declaration: “Probably twenty” two.” He continued to explain his reasons for such a deafening reply, “You said, how many ‘could’ the #11 win. Sure 22 is a lot. But it’s a real number. I mean I’m taking out the road courses, other than that. That’s all I’m taking out.” With only three more road course races left after The Brickyard 400’s inclusion in the 2024 schedule, Hamlin’s calculation seems somewhat right, even in an outlandishly unbelievable manner. 

Regardless, he must also face some familiar challenges that have bothered Denny in the past for almost 18 long years, such as the gloried Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Denny concludes this interaction by announcing his plans for the future, stating, “The brickyard I really want bad. We’re actually going to test there as well. The #11 car. That’s the one test we signed up for this year.”

After facing tire issues in prior advances at the hallowed grounds of The Brickyard, Hamlin could definitely use the extra testing time. Moreover, with much outcry over the ‘authenticity’ of the tire compounds, this could be Denny’s chance to finally figure things out from up close at the Goodyear tire tests in IMS later this year.

A shot at redemption in 2024 following the first Goodyear tire test for #11 driver

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Additionally, the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway will also make its Cup Series debut this season on June 16th. According to Bob Pockrass earlier in March, the 25,000-seater facility will be the next of “7-10 tracks” where Goodyear will undertake their tire tests this year. With the Sonoma tests yielding mixed results last month, NASCAR’s tire partners will “tentatively” move to Watkins Glen, Atlanta, and Bristol, among the few other racetracks for testing.

Nevertheless, the last time the Cup Series raced on the 2.5-mile configuration of The Brickyard in 2020, Kevin Harvick won his second consecutive victory at the 400-lap spectacle. But it could have been Denny Hamlin, who spun out from contention due to tire issues with just seven laps to go. The following year, at the inaugural edition of the Verizon 200 on the Indy Road Course, Hamlin was denied his first Cup Series victory of the 2021 season by Chase Briscoe in overtime. It is safe to say that The Brickyard has been a thorn in the side of the #11 Toyota. But with renewed passion and unrelenting determination, Denny Hamlin may finally conquer one of his major racing demons come July.