Among the NASCAR Cup Series contenders, the focus on Denny Hamlin is a lot these days. And it’s not only because of the deal with Michael Jordan for a new NASCAR team. Hamlin is also Kevin Harvick’s biggest challenger this season for the title.

Hamlin is one of the drivers with the most race wins without a NASCAR Cup Series title. As he inches towards a title run as the playoff battle heats up, the Joe Gibbs Racing star is set to face his biggest hurdle yet in his title bid.

Many drivers are talking about the challenge posed by the tracks in the second round of the Playoffs. With the uncertainty of what the Talladega Superspeedway and The Roval at Charlotte have to offer, most drivers want to do as well as they can this weekend at Las Vegas.

Why Denny Hamlin is uncertain about Las Vegas

However, for Harvick, the challenge of Vegas weighs the heaviest. “Las Vegas has just been really our Achilles heel with our whole race team at JGR, to be honest with you, through the course of my career,” Harvick said in an interview recently.

Las Vegas indeed is Hamlin’s Achilles Heel. In 17 starts at the track, he averages a 14th place finish. He also has just one Top-10 finish in his last five starts there.

The driver of the No. 11 car said this entire round is the most challenging for him. He highlighted why he and the other drivers are concerned about Talladega and The Roval.

Bigger challenges ahead

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“For us, no question it’s that second round, it’s the most concerning round. Everyone will talk about Talladega and how ‘wild card’ it is, and you can get caught up in a wreck there,” Hamlin said.

“We know the superspeedways are very tough to predict. The Roval, to me, is equally as tough to predict as a superspeedway is,” he added.

Chase Elliott spoke about the importance of stage points at Las Vegas. However, in the last few races at Vegas, Hamlin’s record has also been rather poor.

Denny Hamlin is 43 points above the cutoff spot at the moment. While that is a comfortable position to be in, it is certainly not a ticket to the next round, especially with the challenges that await him.

It will be highly exciting to see what Hamlin and the others make out of the Las Vegas race.