More than 19 years and 50 Cup Series wins since he started his Cup Series career, Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin got behind the wheel once again on Sunday. Though the driver has won numerous accolades and achieved incomparable feats in his career, the Cup Series championship trophy has eluded him. Going into the 2023 playoffs, he had one more shot at furthering his chances to make it to the top this year. But as fate would have it, he faltered at the end despite dominating much of the race at the Darlington Raceway.

Despite receiving a slight blow on his championship chances as Darlington is where Hamlin is usually at his best, where he has recorded 4 wins and 12 top-5s, Hamlin appeared to not let the loss get to his head. Taking to Instagram to let out his emotions, the 42-year-old shared a heartwarming post from Darlington.

Denny Hamlin finds solace beyond the NASCAR track

Going into the first race of the playoffs, Denny Hamlin was extremely positive about his chances. Speaking on NASCAR’s media day before the race, he’d expressed his optimism and said that everything was falling into place for him. Also, mentioning that there were no excuses for sure, he appeared to firmly believe that he had what it took to be a champion. Little would the driver have expected that he would once again lose out on a win owing it to an unnecessary blunder.

Well into the third stage of a race he had dominated for the most part, he faced an issue with one of his wheels and was forced to the pit road. The issue cost him heavily and he ended up finishing the race at P25. While losing out on a race in which he looked poised for a win for the most part must have inflicted pain, the driver seemed to be taking his mind off it by spending time with his young daughters, Taylor and Molly. Sharing pictures of himself and them, he captioned his Instagram post, “Still a winner”.

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The Darlington Raceway is called the ‘Too tough to tame’ track for a reason. One of the most difficult ovals in the country, it allows absolutely no margin for error. Drivers have dreaded this track since it came into operation in 1950. But for someone with the caliber and experience of Denny Hamlin and his crew chief Chris Gabehart, that shouldn’t exactly be the case. 

In line with his expectations, he won the first two stages and dominated much of the race. He’d led a massive 177 laps of the race when tragedy struck. Feeling that one of his wheels had come loose, the driver took his car to the pit road. The unscheduled stop sunk his position and caused him to finish outside the top 20. What came as a shock was his crew chief’s radio message. As Hamlin continued the race, Chris Gabehart said to him, “Everything we can tell, the wheel looked fine, bud”. 

As reported by nascar.com, speaking to the media, Gabehart talked about how the race wasn’t worth taking the risk of continuing without an analysis. He had made the pit road call trusting the driver’s instinct. Backing Hamlin, he said, “I mean, my guy’s won 50 of these. He’s been doing it for nearly 20 years. He knows what he feels. So live on TV, it probably looked uncertain, but I’m certain. Denny knows.”

While missing out on the win is surely not ideal considering the competition’s stage, Hamlin can breathe a sigh knowing that he has got stakes in matters that are more important than the sport. Seeing his heartwarming post with his daughters, one will have to thank his crew chief for not taking a risk with a potentially fatal issue.

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