Denny Hamlin is riding high on success right now by becoming only the 7th driver to win multiple races after 700 career starts. He’s just a couple of races behind Kevin Harvick to stand in 10th place on the Cup Series wins list of all time. And it looks like that record might be broken too, as Hamlin is not planning to slow down anytime soon.
The race at Dover Motor Speedway was nothing short of a thriller drama. There were multiple wrecks, drivers cursing each other, cautions, restarts, and it even went overtime. The initial stages of the race were led by Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell, both winning Stage 1 and Stage 2, respectively. Hamlin kept himself inside the Top 5 and seized the opportunity to take the lead from the 356th lap, and the rest of the race was led by him.
But what was noteworthy was how No.19 Chase Briscoe made a sacrificial move to let his teammate win the race. In the final lap of the Dover race, Briscoe could have made some tricky moves to overtake Hamlin. However, he took the decision not to, as such a move could be lethal to both the drivers and the team.“Yeah, I mean, if it wasn’t a teammate, I definitely could have been a little more aggressive, just like into three and put him in a really really bad arrow situation, but the odds of one of us wrecking there were pretty high,” said Briscoe to Frontstretch post race. Hamlin, too, appreciated his teammate’s decision to race clean.
Denny Hamlin appreciates teammate Chase Briscoe’s integrity
Hamlin was asked what he thought about his teammate’s virtuous decision, as they drove aggressively but also had a clean race at the same time. Hamlin, without thinking much, responded by saying, “Yeah, that’s the toughest. It’s the toughest line to walk truthfully because you’re you know if it’s someone else, you don’t mind running them up in the fuzz, right? if it’s teammate, you got to you got to sit down, you got to see that guy tomorrow afternoon.” He appreciated his teammate for making the tough call to keep the race clean.
Furthermore, he humorously confessed what he said to Briscoe on the track. “When we went back, right before we went back, me and Chris were walking back to our cars and I said, ‘Just don’t wipe me out.’ that, you know, I was just, I was afraid with him on, where we got old tires, you know, I don’t know what the grip level of the track is.” On a serious note, Hamlin was right to warn his teammate as he ran the whole race on untested old tires while Briscoe had new tires on him. This makes Hamlin’s victory even more special as he overcame all odds.
Denny Hamlin
Continuing about the incident, Hamlin explained, “He probably laid off of me there off of four, and ended up wrecking himself because he, you know, didn’t want to have the big contact. So, yeah, it was good hard racing.” Winning at Dover would have awarded Briscoe his 4th Cup series career victory and more playoff points, but still, he chose to stand by Hamlin.“You know, I don’t want to, I want to make sure that JGR at least won the race. It would not have been a good Monday morning meeting if, you know, I go in there and do something and wreck us both and somebody else wins.” The Hall of Fame Joe Gibbs must definitely be proud of the cooperation inside the team. However, for one of the drivers, thick cooperation didn’t work. Christopher Bell’s obsession with winning put him out of the race in the final laps.
Christopher Bell causes chaos for the No.20 team at Joe Gibbs Racing
It’s very clear in the NASCAR arena that Christopher Bell is one of the most highly competitive drivers in NASCAR. His only intention on the track is to win, and no points matter to him. Before the Dover race, Bell finished in the top 5 after two bad performances, where he finished 30th in Atlanta and 24th in Chicago. “Everything is just being really sloppy on all accounts. To walk out of here with a fifth-place finish hopefully gives us a little bit of momentum and we can keep it going (and) build on it.” Despite bouncing back with a top 5, Bell was frustrated, saying that both he and the team did a sloppy job.
And his failure to win at Sonoma made him go too hard on the highly risky Dover track. Dover, popularly known as the ‘Monster Mile,’ is known for being one of the most challenging tracks. All drivers have to remain conscious and run strategically. Bell followed just one strategy, and that was to be reckless than the entire pack. The No.20 driver lost balance first at the 260th lap, which led to a caution, when Bell went to the pit and restarted again. But, he did not stop. At the final laps with just seven laps remaining, Bell’s attempt to cleverly take Hamlin out led his car to lose control, throwing the No.20 car out of the race.
Despite his recklessness, Bell acknowledged Hamlin’s great victory: “I’m glad that JGR still won the race, Denny did a great job, obviously. He always does, closing these things out. Chase Briscoe got a good finish, and yeah, great day for the company. Disappointed in myself for making so many mistakes, but our speed was really good.” Hopefully, Bell will learn out of this mistake to not repeat it at Indianapolis next week.
Do you think Denny Hamlin will finally secure a Cup Series title this year? Let us know in the comments below.
The post Denny Hamlin on Chase Briscoe’s Sacrifice for Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR’s Dover Theatrics appeared first on EssentiallySports.
