The NASCAR Cup garage is at the Talladega this weekend for the second playoff race in the Round-12. Being a superspeedway, the track offers anyone who play their cads right the perfect shot at winning races and the Next-Gen era has changed racing there so much that the drivers used to dominate their no longer has the same edge.
One veteran that lose such an advantage is Denny Hamlin, who was arguably the best at Superspeedways till 2022. The JGR veteran hasn’t found his mojo back in races like at Dega and Daytona. In the last five races at Talladega, the No:11 team has finished outside the top 15 thrice and has never come close to a win. Hamlin talked about his drop in performance on these tracks in the latest episode of his podcast.
“All those things I learned from Dale Jr. and Tony Stewart, gone.” 😮 pic.twitter.com/zds5wknhih
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) October 3, 2024
He pointed out that all the techniques and tricks he has learned from likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart in the past, about passing on the track, are no longer useable at Dega. Now it has become more of a number game where drivers, who is in the lane with the most cars got the chance to get upfront compared to others.
Denny Hamlin shares his expectations for the YellaWood 500
The three times Daytona 500 winner shared his expectation about the race weekend. He expects the race to be a game of track positions and bit of fuel saving, as he believes almost all of the teams will be employing the same strategy. Hamlin seems to be expecting nothing new from the race weekend at Dega.
The predictions from Hamlin hints to the possibility of having a dull race at Talladega, unless there is some late race wrecks. It will be a huge disappointment for the fans if race just become a crash fest instead of featuring highspeed passes and great duels.