Denny Hamlin tends to drive well on concrete tracks, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes he knows the key to Hamlin’s success. On theDale Jr. Downloadpodcast, Earnhardt explained why the three-time Daytona 500 winner enjoys the concrete tracks.
“There might be something that a driver appreciates about the feeling of driving a car on concrete,” Earnhardt said. “But a lot of times too it’s the team and crew chief, air pressure setup. There’s certain ways to get grip find grip, create grip that you would do at a concrete track that might be a little different than an asphalt track.
“…Junior Motorsports had something magical there at Nashville for a while. Every time we went there no matter how we ran throughout the rest of the year, we would always run good at Nashville. You find air pressures or combination of things that can set you apart at those racetracks.”
This year, Hamlin won at Dover and Bristol, and both are concrete tracks. And as Earnhardt mentioned Nashville is a concrete track, but Hamlin finished 12th in the race on Sunday. Last year, Hamlin finished third in the Nashville race and won the Bristol Fall race.
Denny Hamlin is very succesful at Bristol
After the Bristol race earlier this year, Hamlin talked about the success he has had on the track. “That’s what I grew up here doing in the short tracks in the Mid-Atlantic, South Boston, Martinsville,” he said. “Once it became a tire management race, I really liked our chances. Obviously the veteran in Martin [Truex Jr.], he knew how to do it as well. We just had a great car, great team. The pit crew just did a phenomenal job all day. Can’t say enough about them. First-time Express Oil Change on the car. Appreciate all the Mavis folks as well. FedEx, Coca-Cola, the whole group. Man, it feels so good to win in Bristol.”
Hamlin is on track to have a chance of winning his first Cup Series championship. He has clinched a spot in the playoffs and is third in the playoff standings behind Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. But if you were to ask Hamlin about his year, he will likely tell you his missed opprtunites of winning more races.
“Am I crazy to think that like I feel like I should have 100 wins? This is f***ing crazy the ways I’ve lost races,” Hamlin said on the Actions Detrimental podcast this year . “Damn it. It sucks.”
The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. opines on what makes Denny Hamlin so good on concrete tracks appeared first on On3.
