Denny Hamlin believes a handful of wheelmen stand above the rest when it comes to racing in wet weather conditions.
The NASCAR Cup Series took a huge leap forward over the weekend, when it was decided they’d attempt to finish the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on wet weather tires. The final 82 laps plus overtime were able to be completed, and fans in Loudon received a full race, when many thought the red flag signaled the end.
While it was Christopher Bell who performed the best, ending up victorious when the checkered flag waved, Hamlin believes there’s a couple drivers who have shown they have what it takes to win when the damp weather rolls through the race track.
“I mean, I think that — you know, you’ve got [Kyle] Larson, [Chase] Briscoe has been good in these types of conditions. CBell (Christopher Bell) comes to mind. Chase Elliott, although I’m surprised he didn’t run better. I don’t know if he had any damage or not. I just, you know, recall the race at COTA that they were having in the wet weather. Those are the ones that immediately draw my eye,” Hamlin said, regarding which drivers excel in wet-weather conditions, via the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I’m sure there’s others, but it seems like those are always, constantly the cars the drive to the front, when there’s these types of conditions.
“You know, we saw for quite some time, the top ten during the wet weather was a lot different than what the top ten was when we were in the dry. So it’s just, some people, it fits their style, and they can make it work.”
As NASCAR looks to keep races rolling during wet weather conditions, it’s easy to see why Denny Hamlin has singled out Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott as the guys to beat when the rain comes to town. We’ll see if they can continue strutting their stuff the next time Mother Nature surprises the Cup Series.
Denny Hamlin expected NASCAR to end race early due to rain at New Hampshire
Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin was doing everything he could to lead the Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before the rain came in. While speaking about Sunday’s race on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin expected NASCAR to end the race due to the rain that moved in the area.
“We definitely knew that rain was imminent,” Hamlin said. “[Chris Gabehart] told me that it was going to come around lap 245-250 if things stayed green. Once Stage 2 ended and we won Stage 2, he said, ‘Alright, you’re going to be back in traffic let’s just say eighth or 10th. What are you going to need?’ I said ‘I think I need to be freed up a little bit.’ He’s like ‘Just so you know, you got about 50 laps to do this.’
“And then we had another quick caution. It was like I don’t know probably the third Kyle Busch caution maybe or something like that. …But then that number just keeps going down.” Hamlin then said that he was racing to lap 215 because of the cautions that were called by NASCAR. He also said that Gabehart told him that he could smell the rain.
“At the time we were racing really really hard for the race, win, and you could see drops on the windshield,” Hamlin explained. “It’s like ‘Oh no.’ You knew it was coming really quickly, which is why you saw us being all so aggressive those 10 laps or so that we got to race after Stage 2.”
On3’s Brian Jones contributed to this article.
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