‘Gambling man’ Denny Hamlin seeks rare 4th Daytona 500 win

DAYTONA BEACH — NASCAR star Denny Hamlin won the closest Daytona 500, along with one of the most chaotic.

He earned win No. 3 in a photo finish while Ryan Newman’s car was left behind in a burning heap.

To become just the third driver in 67 years to win the Great American Race a fourth time, Hamlin might need to do something even more unexpected, spectacular and special.

The Gen 7 car has marginalized Hamlin’s sixth sense on super speedways, while Toyotas have recently come up short against Chevrolet and Ford, which split the past four 500s. Hamlin, 44, is running out of chances and knows the odds are against him.

“I want to remind everyone that I’ve ran 40 races at Daytona, and I’ve only won three of them,” he quipped this week. “If you look at it from a win-loss perspective, it’s horrendous. But in our sport, they call it great.”

A win Sunday by one of NASCAR’s more polarizing drivers would generate buzz and continue to build a resumé among the best of this generation.

Hamlin, though, shows few signs of slowing down entering his 20th season in the Cup Series.

Since a winless 2018 at 37 spurred theories he might be fading, Hamlin has posted 23 wins in six seasons, including the Daytona 500 in ’19 — a race featuring three wrecks and two red-flag stoppages during the final 10 laps of regulation — and in ’20 when Newman’s horrific crash consumed the race community for days.

Capturing back-to-back 500s was a rare feat previously accomplished by just three drivers, seven-time winner Richard Petty, four-time winner Cale Yarborough and Sterling Marlin.

“He’s just really smart thinking about the end game,” said Ryan Blaney, who lost to Hamlin by .014 of a second in ’20. “He’s good there everywhere, but here it really shows.”

Hamlin, who’s also won twice at Talladega Superspeedway, said he came along at the perfect time to learn an increasingly lost art. Yet, he’s dubious he’ll be able to apply his race craft Sunday.

“I got the privilege to race against some of the greatest super speedway racers that this sport’s ever seen,” he said. “I was very lucky to come into sport when Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart and Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. taught me. I saw right away their IQ was exponentially higher than what mine was when I was a young driver. But it’s more difficult in today’s type of super speedway racing to see high IQ.

“I know how to go get a run, but I know I can’t take it now because if I do it’s just not going to pay off. I used to be able to make the run and get back in [the pack] and keep going.”

Parity created by the Gen 7 car’s 2022 arrival has delivered better opportunities for owners and drivers to get in the mix, but eliminated some of the imagination and derring-do elevating the elite talents with keen anticipation, a sense of drafting and high-risk tolerance.

“It does appear this car has maybe taken some advantages away that a driver like Denny Hamlin has at the super speedways,” Larry McReynolds, a longtime Fox analyst and former crew chief, told the Orlando Sentinel.

Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing with NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, also has capitalized on the affordability to run a team. Yet, Hamlin also wants NASCAR to share more of its profit, leading him and Jordan to pursue an antitrust lawsuit related over charter agreements; a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in December to allow 23XI and Front Row Motorsports to race in 2025.

“In 20 years I’ve tried my best to form change in a positive manner for the sport, one that I love,” Hamlin said. “I aspired to be here when I was a kid. But sometimes there’s strain that comes with change. Unfortunately, things just came to a head.”

Hamlin, who grew up in NASCAR country outside Richmond, Va., has never backed down on or off the track. Fittingly, his popular podcast is called Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin.

But the late J.D. Gibbs, son of Hall of Fame owner Joe Gibbs, gave a precocious, talented teenager a chance more than 25 years ago. Still driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin continues to reward the family’s faith while he aims to increase his 54 Cup Series wins and capture an elusive season championship — each of the dozen drivers with as many victories has one.

The 10-race playoff chase might generate excitement down to the final race, but Hamlin isn’t a fan. He hasn’t put pen to paper, so isn’t sure whether seasons with eight, seven and six wins might have been good enough under the old, season-long points format.

“With the circumstances that it takes to win a title, it’s a one-race process,” he said. “It’s easier to actually predict that you’ll be great for an entire season versus, ‘I’m going to win this one race that’s on this 36-race schedule.’ We’ve been really good the last few years and haven’t made the Final Four.

“The opportunity is there, someone’s going to be crowned champion and we have to do the best we can to work the system to make it happen.”

Hamlin is grateful he has the opportunity.

“I am afraid of the night I go to sleep and the morning I wake up that I’m no longer a competitive driver,” he said. “I know it will happen at some point. From history and what I’ve seen, it happens like a light switch.

“I worry about that switch going off and when it’s going to go off.”

No one expects it to be Sunday.

Hamlin is again one of the favorites. If he’s there at the end, no one would bet against him.

“Denny’s a gambling man,” said Jimmie Johnson, 40 and a two-time winner. “His head space and wiring and how to look at the odds in the race, it just fits into his DNA. He does a great job in the draft and enjoying the risk-it-all moments when they matter, and understanding when to do that.

“I don’t exactly know what it is, but there are plenty of parallels to sitting at a poker table that come into play there.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com