Darlington expert Denny Hamlin explains why “it’s always good to question your confidence”

When Denny Hamlin crossed the start-finish line at Martinsville for his 55th career win, it also placed him in a tie for 11th on the all-time wins list. He and the rest of the Cup Series field now head to Darlington where Hamlin has more wins than any other active driver (four) with his most recent coming in 2021.

While always battling near the front of the field, Hamlin was facing a 31-race winless streak when he captured the checkered flag last Sunday. Even as the winningest driver in NASCAR without a Cup title, Hamlin said maintaining confidence is never a given … nor should it be.

“I think it’s always good to question your confidence, because it forces you to look at yourself to figure out did you do everything that you’re capable of doing for the team,” said Hamlin in a Saturday media availability. 

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Logan Riely / Getty Images

“Are you constantly working on your craft? You should always second guess yourself I believe if you’re a NASCAR driver, because things evolve and we constantly go through aero changes, tire changes, car changes, track changes. Are you adapting quickly to that? Confidence is a great thing and it’s very beneficial, but there [are] times you need to question whether you should do things different or evolve your craft. I think it’s important to getting better.”

What it takes to win at Darlington

Hamlin hasn’t won back-to-back races since the 2012 season and despite his impressive record at Darlington, he is cautious about believing he has any sort of advantage over the field.

“This sport is so week-to-week, it’s hard to say that but you can’t argue with the results I would say that, certainly, it lends itself to the best drivers, best teams, all those things,” said Hamlin. “I think it’s a great combination of you got to have everything. You have to have good mechanical grip here. You have to have good aerodynamics and the driver has to be really good with his craft. I talked about just understanding when to push, when to not. Understanding the length of the race is. Even though this is a 400 (mile race), it’s still grueling.  I think Darlington is by far one of the most grueling race tracks that you go to simply because it’s going to be a warm one this weekend.

“It’s going to be mentally-taxing knowing that you’ve have to hit your marks just perfect at this track and then, just knowing the mental side of it, you have 35 other guys out there that’s don’t want to let you win. It’s really hard to navigate that, and it’s a track that you can’t get away from others. Usually other mile-and-a-half tracks, tracks of this size, it’s wide enough to where you want to go get clean air, you can probably go get it. Here, there’s just no escaping it. It’s just really hard to get runs, make passes on people. It just takes its toll, or it has for me, on my body, mind every time I race here.”

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Hamlin has run 25 Cup races at Darlington, a number only surpassed by Kyle Busch. He noted how his approach to racing at Darlington has “changed over time” due to how the competition on track has evolved since his career began.

“I think as time has gone on, you’ve seen everybody’s so good at running the wall now or running close to it that, typically I think you can find good cars and good drivers off the wall. It used to be because not many people ran right on it for such an extended period of time, that if you could just run within a few inches of it, you would get into better asphalt than others.

“Now, everyone kind of runs so close to the wall that now you’re only getting the aero effect. But here at this track (Darlington), the speeds aren’t as high, so you don’t get as big of a benefit running right on the wall as you do it somewhere like Homestead that has higher corner speeds. I don’t think the wall has as big of an advantage as that used to have, but it is you know typically the fastest lane around here. If have a car that or a driver that saves his tires a little bit more, you can have enough disparity in speed to make passes elsewhere.”

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