Denny Hamlin’s Insane Darlington Recovery Impresses Insiders Amid Maiden Championship Pursuit

The 2025 Southern 500 featured a slew of blunders. Several top-ranked playoff contenders made several unforced errors, mainly on pit road, and they included Denny Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran found his team’s Achilles’ Heel in the form of execution. A slow pit stop axed Hamlin’s pole-winning pace and robbed him of the capability to stand up against Chase Briscoe. However, Hamlin was not determined to give up so soon, as a championship beckoned.

Denny Hamlin is the master of Darlington among all active drivers, boasting five victories at the egg-shaped oval. He won even during the April 2025 race, where he capitalized on a perfectly executed pit stop in the final laps. However, his April strength turned into a weakness in August – but Hamlin did not let that pull him down.

Denny Hamlin elicits praise for rebound

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs comprise an especially stressful time for Denny Hamlin. As if the pressure to compete in the cutthroat elimination format was not enough, Hamlin has a NASCAR lawsuit in his hands. 23XI Racing has lost its charters according to a court ruling, and NASCAR might sell them to other teams. What is more, Michael Jordan has issued devastating hints at shutting down the stellar team altogether. Despite this mounting pressure and the pit stop mistake in Darlington, Hamlin still harnessed the energy for a comeback. He remembered his 19-year streak of losing the championship. So in pursuit of a maiden Cup Series title, he worked hard to drive back from the rear. In the end, he could salvage a top ten finish.

Although a 7th-place result is hardly befitting the man who has danced with ‘The Lady in Black’ so many times, Denny Hamlin received praise. In a recent episode of ‘The Teardown’, Jeff Gluck talked about Hamlin’s rebound: “The one guy that had trouble, that came back, was Denny Hamlin. Because it looked like, for a while, that he was with Byron, and they couldn’t go anywhere. And there was that one run where he lost his track position, he gets passed by Cole Custer, and he’s dropped to 25th. You’re like, boy, when you lose your track position, you’re really done. But they chipped away at it with pit stops, I think. He was able to get back up to 7th and salvage it…He is plus 43 – so that was a huge way to salvage on a night that looked really bad for Denny Hamlin.”

Denny Hamlin was not alone in his pit road troubles. The entire Hendrick Motorsports grid also suffered from severe problems, as not one car finished better than 17th. Alex Bowman was the worst hit, as the No. 48 Chevrolet driver faced a disastrous pit stop. Due to a malfunctioning air gun, the pit crew hit an astounding 40-second stop, unheard of in the Cup Series. These glaring mistakes painted a better picture for Hamlin, who could at least make up for the blunder. Jordan Bianchi agreed with Gluck: “Yeah, rough night at pit road. Back-to-back pit stops or two pit stops tonight that were costly. They thought they had mechanical issues, too, but again, salvaged.”

While Denny Hamlin is ferociously engaged with his championship hopes, he is leaving his drivers at peace.

Offering space to thrive

When one is a driver/owner, things become complicated. Brad Keselowski faced it as an RFK Racing driver/owner just ahead of the postseason. He faced competition with Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher as all three were seeking a victory. Similarly, Denny Hamlin draws a boundary between his team ownership and driver duties. He competes with both Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, drivers of his team 23XI Racing, on a weekly basis. With the heightened tensions during the playoffs, Hamlin opted to give both Wallace and Reddick personal space to thrive.

Denny Hamlin admitted recently that he stays away from Airspeed to avoid team meetings at 23XI Racing. He said, “I feel like there is a good balance that I try to have. I try to give them, while I am able to have access to everything, I give them a little bit of space during the playoffs. I don’t think it’s necessarily fair if I go and see their strategy meeting and then go sit in mine.” He continued, “I do give them their competition space when it comes to the playoffs, because ultimately, while I’m still driving, nothing would anger me more than to give them a secret of mine and then it knocks me out of the playoffs. I let them do it themselves for these ten (races).”

Evidently, Denny Hamlin is balancing two hectic jobs and excelling at both. We can only wait and see if he can keep excelling till the end of the postseason.