NASCAR: Can Denny Hamlin finally shed unwanted title?

Denny Hamlin is still seeking his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship despite having 44 victories to his name. Can he end that discussion this year?

Following a 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season that saw him record career-highs in top five finishes, top 10 finishes and average finish after going winless for the first time in his career in 2018, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin entered the 2020 season as a championship favorite.

He quickly vindicated that status by opening the year with another Daytona 500 victory, his second in a row and third in the last five years.

Hamlin’s six wins last year were his most since he won a career-high eight races in 2010, and he matched that total this year in only 24 of 36 races.

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He has earned seven victories through 35 races this season and has been justifiably deemed one of the favorites to win the championship. Most importantly, he has qualified for the Championship 4 for the second consecutive season.

But in some ways, this success has only magnified one achievement that has eluded Hamlin throughout his entire career: a championship. He has reiterated that he will not judge his career as a success or a failure based on whether or not he wins a championship, especially since champions are now crowned following a winner-take-all round under the current playoff format and a driver could technically win 35 races in a 36-race season and finish as low as fourth place in the title battle. And history likely won’t either; he has done more than enough to be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

However, he won’t be able to avoid the inevitable talks of not having ever been crowned champion.

Can he put an end to that this weekend?

This season has seen Hamlin pass Mark Martin on the all-time wins list. Martin won 40 races, and Hamlin, who began the year with 37 victories, is up to an 18th place tie with Bill Elliott with 44 wins.

That is significant because among full-time drivers throughout the sport’s history, no retired driver who has won more races than Hamlin has is not in the Hall of Fame, and he continues to add to his win total.

The only non-champion ahead of Hamlin on the all-time wins list is the late Junior Johnson, who won 50 races in 313 starts over the course of 14 seasons.

However, Johnson can almost be exempt from this discussion completely since he never ran a full season. In fact, he never came within eight races of completing a full season throughout his career, a Hall of Fame career that saw him compete in more than half of a season’s races only seven times.

Plus, Hamlin will likely pass that mark anyway.

Will he do it as a champion?

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Tune in to NBC at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon for the live broadcast of the 2020 Championship 4 season finale from Phoenix Raceway to watch as Hamlin battles Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski as well as Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott for the title.

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