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Denny Hamlin Pokes Fun at Kyle Larson Ahead of Cup Series Regular Season Finale

Published 08/26/2021, 3:30 PM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

With one race left, it is between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson for the regular-season championship. Obviously, the on-track rivalry is fierce, but the drivers usually make sure that it stays on the track. This explains why Hamlin decided to challenge Larson to a friendly game of golf.

Apparently, Hamlin won that round, so he called himself the better ‘driver’. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver managed to best Larson by 500 yards on the golf course and take bragging rights. Of course, the real battle has to take place on the race track and the competition will be fiercer.

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For a long time, Denny Hamlin was the Cup Series championship leader. However, his lack of race wins this season has finally come back to bite him hard. A few races ago, Kyle Larson finally took over the championship lead and left Hamlin to play catch up. At the coming weekend’s race at the Daytona International Speedway, the #11 driver will be keen to finally break his jinx.

Can Denny Hamlin deliver the goods at Daytona this weekend?

For his sake, he had better try and win this weekend, so that he can get his season into gear. Additionally, he will be praying that Larson does not enjoy a good race weekend at the Daytona International Speedway. However, the chances of that happening may be a bit slim.

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What works in Larson’s favor is the fact that he is on pole position and leading a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2. Meanwhile, Hamlin is right on his tail in third place, and he has backup in the form of his teammate Kyle Busch. To make matters even more interesting, Chase Elliott starts fifth, while Martin Truex Jr starts in 7th.

USA Today via Reuters

This pretty much evens the odds between Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. It also helps that Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman start from 14th and 15th respectively. Sprinkle in a few wildcards, like the Penske duo of Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski, things get more spicy.

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Chip Ganassi’s Kurt Busch and JTG Daugherty’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr are also thrown in the mix. They come along with Matt DiBenedetto, Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe.

Kyle Larson Leads All Hendrick Motorsports Front Row for Coke Zero Sugar 400

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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