Denny Hamlin is getting restless about not yet scoring a win this Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has been shut out of Victory Lane in the first 19 races of the campaign. While there have been a number of good finishes that have added up to Hamlin sitting ninth in the point standings heading into this weekend’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he says it’s not good enough.
“I’ve gone through – this last month has been probably one of the toughest in my 14 years,” Hamlin said. “It’s just been really bad results. Not that we’ve necessarily run bad or had bad speed, just terrible results, but, you know, luckily for us they’re letting 16 guys in – not 10. You can kind of be mediocre and still kind of make it in to the playoffs, so our job is to get good right now.
“We need to start winning right now, running the top-five, leading more laps and get to work on this season and try to make sure that we put ourselves in contention at the end.”
Hamlin was able to get his first win last season at New Hampshire’s summer race and has had success at the 1.058-mile track in the past. But while his JGR teammate Kyle Busch continues to put wins on the board to the tune of five so far this season, Hamlin and the No. 11 team have been frustrated.
Busch along with Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. comprise the “Big Three” and Hamlin understands he has a ways to go in order to rise to the trio’s level of performance.
“Yeah, but I don’t think we’ve been at that level to even be talked about at this point,” he said. “I think we’ve got to get better in a lot of different aspects and so I don’t mind it personally. I mean, it’s agitating knowing that we’re capable of doing that if we just put everything together, but until we do it, they deserve all the press they’ve gotten.”
Although Hamlin is disappointed he hasn’t had better results so far this year, he by no means is giving up on running for a title. The way he sees it, there is a long way to go with a number of variables ahead.
“We know still that, you know, it doesn’t matter how many you points those other guys accrue, if we can win at Texas, Phoenix or Homestead – or Texas, Phoenix or Martinsville – we’re part of the Championship 4 and could easily knock one of those guys out and all the hard work that they’ve put in throughout the entire year,” Hamlin said.
