Denny Hamlin has been excited about his chances to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship Race, and for good reason: He’s won at all three of the Eliminator Round tracks – Martinsville, Texas, and Phoenix – over the course of his career.
The question was if he would be among the final eight Chasers involved in said Eliminator Round.
Now that it’s been answered in the affirmative, Hamlin’s looking more and more like a proper sleeper to get in that final battle at Homestead next month.
He can make the leap from sleeper to true championship contender with a fifth career Cup victory at Martinsville Speedway in Sunday’s Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500.
“Really, these tracks are statistically my best race tracks in this Chase,” Hamlin said today. “I’m pretty excited about our chances. We’ve got a big obstacle ahead of us this weekend at Martinsville. We’re just going to enjoy it, have fun and see where we all stack up.”
Hamlin and his fellow Chaser from Joe Gibbs Racing, Matt Kenseth, may not have as much speed as some of the others within the Eliminator 8. But consistency up front can trump that speed if a faster driver has something go wrong for him.
“One loose wheel, one crash pretty much takes you out of it. If you can’t finish these races in a good finishing position, then it doesn’t matter how fast your cars are,” he said. “You have to have all the pieces to the puzzle together now that you’re part of the final eight, because the four that move on will be the four that stand out I think in this round.
“It’s not going to be about surviving or backing your way [in]. I don’t think anybody other than the [Martinsville and Texas] race winners will be going into Phoenix thinking, ‘Okay, let’s just have a solid week here and move on to Homestead.’ There is no more hanging back and trying to be conservative from here on out. You’ve got to be fast.”
As for who he considers his stiffest competition, Hamlin naturally chose Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, both of whom have won eight times at Martinsville.
Gordon can also punch his ticket to South Florida with a win on Sunday. But Johnson, despite being eliminated from the Chase in the Contender Round, can still have an impact by winning himself as it would take away one of the automatic berths for the Championship Race.
Hamlin figures he may always be fighting Gordon and Johnson on this particular track.
“In the end, you’re still going to be racing the same guys in my opinion, no matter what the changes are because they have a technique to get around this race track that is going to make them successful whether they’re driving a Cup car or a truck,” he said. “It’s worked for them for so many years, there’s no turning back.
“They’ll never be bad at this race track ever again – it don’t matter what tire, what car – eventually they’ll figure it out. It’s just a matter of if you have one of those off weekends or not.”
LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.
“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.
France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.
A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.
Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.
The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.
“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”
The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.
The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.
“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”
This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) June 7, 2023
Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.
“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”
The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.
“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.
— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans) June 7, 2023
“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”
The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.
“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”
For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.
“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.
“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”
The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.
“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”
