Of the 36 races on the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series scheduled, 20 have been completed, yet Denny Hamlin is still winless. Will this change?
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin is in the midst of one of his worst seasons as a NASCAR Cup Series driver with 20 races on the 36-race 2018 schedule having been completed.
Following a 2017 season during which Hamlin tied his career-high in top 10 finishes with 22, tied his career-high in top five finishes with 15 and set a new career-high average finish of 11.6 en route to sixth place finish in the championship standings, he has had a lackluster 2018 season up to this point.
Hamlin has not driven his #11 Toyota to victory lane in any of the season’s first 20 races. Since his full-time Cup Series career began in the 2006 season, he has won at least one of each season’s first 20 races except in the 2009 season when his first win of the year came in the 21st race and in the 2013 season when he missed four races early in the season with a back injury and did not win a race until he won the season finale.
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Through 20 races so far this season, Hamlin has racked up 10 top 10 finishes and six top five finishes. Three of his six top five finishes came in the first four races of the season, and four of his 10 top 10 finishes came in the first five races of the season, meaning he has really cooled down since then after looking like one of the top championship contenders early on in the year.
Hamlin sits in 10th place in the championship standings and 12th in the playoff standings. Aside of the 2013 season during which he missed four races with a back injury and finished in 23rd in the standings, his lowest career finish in the standings is 12th. He finished in 12th in the 2007 season. If he doesn’t win a race before this season ends, he could very well finish right around 12th or perhaps even lower.
Seeing as how Hamlin has started the 2018 season as slowly as he has, it is certainly possible that he won’t get to victory lane this year. After all, it isn’t like Joe Gibbs Racing or Toyota in general have struggled.
Three of the other four full-time Toyota drivers have combined to win 10 races so far this year and two of the other three full-time Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have been responsible for six of those victories. Hamlin, however, has had no part of that success. In fact, he just struggled mightily and finished in 13th place in the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a race he won last year for his first of two victories in 2017.
However, in each of his 12 seasons as a full-time Cup Series driver prior to this year, Hamlin has won at least one race, so it is hard to imagine him being kept out of victory lane completely this year even with his recent struggles.
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Do you believe that Denny Hamlin will win any of the remaining six races on the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series regular season schedule or any of the 10 playoff races? If so, which race or races do you believe he will win?