Yesterday’s Chicago race was one full of sharp turns and tight drama. The in-form favorite to win the race, Shane van Gisbergen, lived up to the expectations and scored his second Cup Series victory of this season. It was a historic win, as the Kiwi driver became the most winnigest foreign-born driver in the top division of NASCAR racing. But the one driver that stood out and finished the race with some mind-boggling stats was the three-time Daytona winner Denny Hamlin. He started from the bottom, literally, and ended up finishing a solid fourth!

The race saw most drivers opt for a two-pit stop strategy, where everyone pitted first around the stage 1 break. However, this wasn’t the case for Hamlin, who was the only driver who went for a one-stop strategy by pitting just once on lap 31. Despite the late caution, the driver of the #11 kept his cool, saved enough fuel to see him across the finish line, settling for a P4 finish. After a frustrating start to the weekend with engine issues in practice, Hamlin had no complaints with the results in Chicago.

Hamlin decodes his stunning Chicago performance

It isn’t common to see drivers pitting just once and also managing to save fuel, especially on street courses like Chicago, whose tight turns and heavy braking can wear the tires faster. On successfully gambling this risky approach, Hamlin said, “Well, I was really saving the entire run um, and still be able to really good lap time. So, truthfully, I felt pretty good all day. We marched forward um, all day long. Um, so, car had pace in it. That’s key to, you know, getting a good finish. But beyond that, um once I was able to get towards the front, I could save and, you know, take it easy on the tires. So, I would love to have been on equal tires um, just to see like how far off I am from those front two guys, but it just didn’t seem like that much.”

Lady luck was in favor of Hamlin yesterday, as he didn’t get directly involved in any of the incidents. The race saw Carson Hocevar’s car hit the turn 10, causing a jam in lap 3. That Michigan Avenue turn is a blind spot for the spotters who are helpless in those situations. Nonetheless, Hamlin praised his team under the leadership of their crew chief, Chris Gayle.

“But, no, got to give great credit to this whole Chris Gale progressive Toyota team. Just, you know, obviously yesterday went really rough. Um, just not one of those days that we needed and, uh, you know, today we bounced back and execute good. You know, one of the first green races, you know, where we didn’t have any issues on a road course. So, this is the kind of finish and the kind of pace that we can have when we don’t have incidents,” Hamlin said post-race. 

Well, Hamlin isn’t known for his road racing skills, but with clean air and track position, he was able to execute the race in Chicago. No one saw this coming, and why would they? The veteran JGR driver has an average finish of 16 on the road courses. In the Next Gen era, the only top 5 finish he had on this configuration was at Watkins Glen in 2023. All he will be hoping for is another strong run at Sonoma, as last year he had similar engine troubles in the Wine Country and had to bow out of the race on the very first lap.

Not just Hamlin, Ty Gibbs from the Joe Gibbs Racing camp had another strong finish on the road/street circuit. And heading into Sonoma, the driver of the #54 Camry would want to make amends and settle his score with SVG.

Ty Gibbs is optimistic about a win at Sonoma Raceway

SVG vs. Ty Gibbs is a rivalry that has been developing on the road course races this season. In Mexico City, Gibbs was the driver who gave the Kiwi driver a run for his money. Had it not been for that caution and spin by Carson Hocevar, we could be having a different conversation. And this battle continued in Chicago as well. After that solid top 5 finish in Michigan, Ty hasn’t looked back and is building the steam for that big result.

Sharing his thoughts on the race, the 22-year-old stated, “We had a great day overall and executed well. Just need to be a little bit faster and I think we could’ve got him.” When asked about his chances for a win at Sonoma, he replied, “Yeah, we’ll go put the hammer down there and have good time, have fun. Go try to win it.”

In the last five races, Ty Gibbs has two top 5 results and has finished 14th or better in the remaining three races. Having Chris Gabehart as the strategy expert is doing the trick for the #54 team, and they are expected to run well next week at Sonoma. But if Gibbs wants to grab that win, he will need to get his elbows out against SVG or expect he has a bad day with mechanical issues or crashes.