James: Denny Hamlin gets his swagger back with Talladega run
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Denny Hamlin’s emotional state becomes apparent fairly quickly after the helmet comes off.
For the first two races of the middle segment of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, it was acquiescent. He spoke of his depleted allotment of “Chase luck” and seemed ripe for elimination in the race at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday. This type of fatalistic vision had played out before, most notably in 2010 when a missed chance to finish off Jimmie Johnson in the next-to-last race of the season led to a surrendering of the points lead in the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Hamlin was a markedly different driver Sunday, though. He grinned almost uncontrollably after finishing third to advance from 10th in points and outside the eight-driver transfer slots to safely in and onto the next round thanks to a tie-breaker with Austin Dillon.
Keselowski, Truex Jr., Elliott, Dillon eliminated from Chase at Talladega
He spoke of his prowess at the next race at Martinsville Speedway and proclaimed himself a title contender again. The luck bucket, it seems, had been topped off, at least in his mind.
“I think it’s a breath of fresh air with the problems we’d had with the blown motors and penalties and the finishes that went with it,” crew chief Mike Wheeler told USA TODAY Sports. “We had that one little break to break even and advance to the next round. Maybe the world’s not against us right now.”
Hamlin’s result had more to do with restrictor-plate ability for the defending Daytona 500 winner, overcoming a potentially costly early pit road speeding penalty and forging alliances with new best buds while his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates sequestered themselves deep in the field to preserve their cars and points finish.
But after sustaining a costly late engine failure while running near the front at Charlotte Motor Speedway and incurring multiple pit road penalties in finishing an unsatisfying 15th at Kansas Speedway, if Hamlin needed to credit other factors, so be it.
Because when he feels the forces aligning behind him, like cars on a restrictor-plate track, he is a major threat.
“Definitely, when you get Denny’s mind right - it goes with the results - when he gets pretty confident he’s one to beat,” Wheeler said.
That version of Hamlin, with the confident semi-swagger, slowly came back Sunday.
“It was crazy. I mean, it was very tough in there not having any teammates, but there were a lot of guys that acted like teammates today to me and can’t thank enough for that,” the Toyota driver said. “They know who they are. I don’t want to get them in trouble with their race teams because they’re probably a different team, different manufacturer, but thank those guys for that.”
Runner-up Brian Scott eased in later, revealing himself as one of Hamlin’s co-conspirators.
“I know I wasn’t your top choice, but I appreciate it,” said Scott, who drives a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports.
“I didn’t care. Good job,” Hamlin responded.
Gluck: Safe race was correct play for Joe Gibbs Racing at Talladega
On returning to Martinsville — where he has won five times in 21 starts — for the third-round opener next week: “I expect to win. I always expect to win going there. We had a very fast car in the spring. I made a mistake and wrecked us, but who’s going to be the favorite when we get there? I can assure you we’re going to be one of them and we’re going to show that.”
And of the rest of the season: “I’ve got my best racetracks ahead of us. There’s no reason why we can’t be racing at Homestead for a championship. …That’s what I expect.”
Which makes it much closer to a reality.
Follow James on Twitter @brantjames
