NASCAR: Kevin Harvick vs. Denny Hamlin – who is the championship favorite?

Denny Hamlin

Coming off of a tough 2018 season, many fans thought that Denny Hamlin’s best days were behind him and that he would always be remembered as the best driver to never win a championship.

Hamlin responded with the best statistical season of his career. He posted six wins, a career-high 19 top five finishes and 24 top 10 finishes and made many people view him as the championship favorite. Unfortunately, a mistake in the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway dropped him out of contention.

Hamlin has shown in the 2020 season that his 2019 season was not just one last hurrah and that he is more than ready to add a championship to his already impressive legacy.

While Hamlin hasn’t been quite as consistent as Harvick has, he does have a series-best five wins this year and trails only Harvick with 10 top five finishes. He sits in fourth place in points with plenty of time to gain more playoff points and possibly overtake Harvick going into the playoffs.

Like Harvick, Hamlin has some of his best tracks coming up. New Hampshire Motor Speedway has typically been viewed as one of his better tracks, and he led over 200 laps in the playoff race at Dover International Speedway last season. And of course, the final race of the regular season is at Daytona International Speedway, the site of Hamlin’s three Daytona 500 wins.

He should have no problem in the round of 16, but the round of 12 could present some issues. Hamlin has just one top 10 finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in his last five starts at the track. The same can be said for Texas Motor Speedway, should those two tracks swap spots.

His best finish in two starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval is 12th place. While he does have a lot of success at Talladega Superspeedway, you never know when you may be caught up in the “Big One”.

So with all of that in mind, who will win the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship?