NASCAR: Bristol Notebook
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
BRISTOL, TN —Denny Hamlin wonders what it’s going to take to quiet his critics.
He’s enjoying his best season in 13 years with Joe Gibbs Racing. The 38-year-old racer has two wins in the first seven races for the first time in his career.
And although Hamlin is second in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, rumors persist that the driver of the No. 11 Fed Ex Toyota is on the hot seat.
“Who says I’m on a hot seat? What do they know that I don’t? That’s what I don’t understand,” Hamlin said. “You all don’t know my relationship with my sponsor, the team or anything. It’s just someone looking to say something. That’s about it.
“I know what I’m capable of. I know that I’ve got a great relationship with the people that I’ve been partners with now for a really long time. Sometimes you just have off seasons and things just don’t happen for whatever reason. The sport’s greatest drivers have had those seasons before, but I never really let my confidence get down on the whole thing. I just have been patient and waiting on it to kind of turn.”
Enter Chris Gabehart. Hamlin’s fifth crew chief during his tenure at JGR. The driver believes Gabehart’s philosophy has turned the No. 11 team’s luck around.
“It certainly forced me to change a few things in the way that I do things and I think that some of those have been a positive thing for me,” Hamlin said. “I’ve never once thought that someone could go out there and do a better job than I could in my own car. We obviously turned the corner this year. We had a good start. It is still very early. You can’t just say everything is great.
“Certainly, last week was evidence of that. We won the race, but we had some shortfalls in the middle of that race that we’re still trying to work through. That’s why I’m confident that if we can still have those kind of results with those kind of shortfalls, that we’re a team that can battle back and once we do have clean races, we’re going to have dominant races. That’s what I really want.”
Chase Elliott won the pole on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, but Hamlin was consistent. He ran fifth in first practice and fifth in qualifying. His only win in Thunder Valley came in 2012.
Hamlin has not advanced to the Championship 4 round since 2014. Although it’s still early in the season, he knows the No. 11 team will have to rack up playoff points in order to have a shot at the title.
“There’s a certain amount of playoff points that you’d like to have going into the playoffs,” Hamlin said. “There’s a certain amount of wins you’d like to have. I don’t want to throw a bunch of numbers out, but we’re getting there.”
That mean, mean green
Bubba Wallace doesn’t mince words when it comes to what’s missing with No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet.
Money buys speed. And Wallace’s best result is 17th at Martinsville Speedway—his only top 20 finish in the first seven races.
When it comes to competing against the powerhouses of NASCAR, a shoestring budget won’t carry a car to the top of the speed chart.
“The biggest thing is dollar signs and over the years we have kind of tip-toed around that, but that’s enough of that,” Wallace said. “We are kind of behind on money. It’s all about being up front and being blunt.
“It’s coming down to a crucial time. We’ve just got to start running better. I always sit there and talk to other people and I’m like, ‘Why would new companies want to come in and sponsor the No. 43?’ You can play the race card all you want. You can get a lot of attention, sure. But, for me, I’m competitive and look at results and new companies don’t understand that. The more money you spend, the better you do. It is hard to get their heads wrapped around that.”
Wallace is grateful for the sponsors he has The St. Louis-based World Wide Technology has been a godsend for the organization. The Air Force has been a long-time benefactor of the No. 43 team.
“We are doing a lot with a little,” said Wallace, who qualified 28th on Friday. “We look at practice speeds, and we are bottom half of the 20’s. It doesn’t look good at all for sure. It drives me up a wall. But we have to look at who we are around, and we are around the cars we are racing with in the points.
“Will we ever have the speed of the big teams? Yes, when we go to Talladega and Daytona where we are all equal. Other than that we just have to keep doing what we can. We are all working hard. I’ll keep working hard.”
Starting his second full season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the 25-year-old has one top-five result—when he finished second in last year’s Daytona 500. Team owner Richard Petty agrees with Wallace’s assessment. The King knows with faster cars Wallace could showcase his talent.
“Bubba has brought a lot of P.R. for us, ok,” Petty said. “The deal is he can get better and we can get a lot better. We have to give him a better car. We’re not giving him good enough equipment to show the ability that he has. As his ability improves, hopefully, we can give him better equipment. Then he’ll show it from there.”
The glass is half full
Ryan Blaney has endured his share of adversity this season.
But the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford would rather focus on the positive. There’s his pole and third-place finish at ISM Raceway, the three top fives in the first six races and the fact that he’s currently eighth in the Cup standings.
With the caliber of the Penske Mustangs, Blaney knows it’s best just to ride the wave.
“The good thing is we’ve had speed all year,” Blaney said. “Sometimes it can get frustrating that we haven’t won a race yet because, honestly, I think we’ve had cars good enough to win almost every single one of them – at least have a shot at them.
“Yeah, more bad things have happened than good. But as a whole group, as a whole Penske group, we have to stay on top of the circle here. We’re at the top of our game and I think our cars are the fastest ones out there—us and the Gibbs guys seem to be the class of the field, and this all goes full circle. You’ll have slumps, you’ll have good times and you just try to capitalize on the good times.”
Sure, Blaney’s hopes were dashed at Texas Motor Speedway when his car overheated and he finished 37th. All three of the Penske teams experienced issues last weekend—a departure from the first six races of the year. Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano won three of the first six races.
Blaney, who qualified third for the Food City 500 on Friday, knows his day will come.
“We have the ability to do it and it’s just a matter of kind of getting it done,” Blaney said. “Everybody knows that, my whole team knows and all of Penske knows and all of the competition knows that we’ve been one of the best cars all year.
“Yeah, you still hate to have a zero in that column even though it’s still really early in the year…You just try to focus on your deal and what you need to do to try to get your team in victory lane.”
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