At Kansas, just like after Richmond, a late caution again snatched victory right out of Martin Truex Jr‘s grasp. While Truex has clinched two wins at Kansas in 2017, he couldn’t nail a third this time to edge closer to Denny Hamlin‘s four victories on the track. Truex really thought he had a chance to catch up to Hamlin if it weren’t for that pesky late caution. He had chosen to go with four tires at the final restart, which ended up putting him at a disadvantage. 

Truex shared, “If there was no caution, I could have caught them quickly.“ However, Denny Hamlin doesn’t quite see it the same way. Hamlin, his JGR teammate, believed he had one of the fastest cars on the track that day.

Denny Hamlin claimed that at Kansas, it wasn’t Martin Truex Jr hot on his heels that got him moving

Kyle Busch spun out in the final laps and triggered a caution- which further triggered Martin Truex Jr’s bad luck. He emphasized late cautions playing a spoilsport for him ‘as always’ and confidently mentioned an alternate ending to his Kansas story. During his post-race interview, he shared that had the yellow not come out, he would have easily overtaken Hamlin for the victory- who he assumed was running out of fuel.

He said, “He [Denny Hamlin] was obviously going to run out of fuel from what they told me, I don’t know, but, they said he couldn’t make it, so I don’t know what uh, yeah, easily was gonna pass him, but uh, it doesn’t matter because it gotcha came out.” However, Hamlin later burst Truex’s bubbles of dreams and clarified that he had enough fuel to keep him going. 

On his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin elaborated, “I didn’t have any awareness that the 19 was coming and he didn’t pick up the pace. We just slowed down the pace so much that we, we came back to him. I felt very confident that I could have just hit the gas and gone, Chris said. […] Chris told me, he says, yeah, I was just about to tell you on the radio, go ahead and go the nineteen’s there. And I would’ve said, okay, I’ll hit the gas stop.” 

When Jared Allen mentioned to Hamlin that Martin Truex Jr and his crew chief were sure they had the race locked down, Hamlin was extremely blunt with his response. He said, “It would’ve been close. I don’t know what to tell you. I just felt like if we go out on all-out speed, I’d pass Martin three times that day.” 

Hamlin pointed out that Truex Jr hadn’t managed to pass him once during the race, so he was pretty sure he had the upper hand in terms of speed. Truex started from 13th and methodically worked his way up, eventually tailing right behind his teammate Hamlin due to differing pit-stop strategies.

Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin, who started 14th, quickly showed his prowess by winning Stage 1 and placing third in Stage 2. He eventually finished fifth, despite his challenges on pit road and the blocking maneuvers by Austin Hill. Yet, we hope this has not dampened the spirits the JGR driver entered the Kansas race with. 

#11 is staking his claim on this year’s championship

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Before the AdventHealth 400 race last night, which was delayed by the weather, Denny Hamlin had a chat with Fox Sports. As expected of Hamlin, he didn’t hold back in declaring that 2024 is the year he’s going to snag his first Championship title. “This is it. This is the year. This is the year it’s going to happen,” Hamlin confidently told FOX Sports.

He even called his shots on how many wins he’ll rack up this season. During a segment on the Teardown podcast, where journalists and analysts speculated that Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota Camry team might clinch four more wins this season, Hamlin went even higher with his own forecast. He boldly claimed, “Probably 22 of the next 25, I’m taking out the road courses. Other than that, that’s all I’m taking out.” His confidence in his team’s capabilities and their potential for success seemed to be rocketing.

Throughout his career, Hamlin has clinched 54 Cup Series races, including three Daytona 500 victories. But the Cup Series Championship has always slipped through his fingers. So far this season, he’s won 3 out of twelve races and has led at least a lap in every race. Well, let’s see if 2024 is really going to be his year or not.