Asked about Denny Hamlin heading into Homestead this weekend with a shot at the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship, Kyle Petty thought of Alan Kulwicki.
Petty spent a lot of time with Kulwicki in 1992 when the “Polish Prince” raced to a NASCAR championship.
The NBC Sports NASCAR analyst has the same feeling around Hamlin’s run this year as he did back in 1992 with Kulwicki.
“For all the things that happened, all the things he went through that year, it’s just like you felt (Kulwicki) was going to win a championship. I think it’s been that way for Denny since they dropped the green flag at Daytona,” Petty said.
Hamlin memorably won the 2019 Daytona 500 in an emotional finish that he dedicated to J.D. Gibbs, a longtime team executive with Joe Gibbs Racing who died from a rare degenerative neurological disease in January.
“It just seems like Denny Hamlin has the team of destiny,” Petty said.
Hamlin has two career wins at Hometead-Miami Speedway, where the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship will be decided on Sunday.
Hamlin joins Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. in the Championship 4 gunning for the 2019 NASCAR title at the 1.5-mile oval.
Busch, Harvick and Truex Jr. also hold career wins at Homestead.
The last five NASCAR champions have won the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, setting the stakes for the Championship 4 on Sunday.
“It seems like you have to win the race to win the championship,” NBC Sports NASCAR analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “You have to go in there with a car capable of winning, a winning strategy, and execute to be the champion. That’s been really profound. I think when we started this system, I don’t know that anybody expected the champion to have to win the race each season, but that’s kind of been what it takes.”
Hamlin has six wins in the No. 11 Toyota in 2019, his most since winning eight back in 2010, and his average finish – 9.46 – is a career-best, as are his 19 Top 5s and 23 Top 10s.
And he has, perhaps, destiny on his side, and momentum, after having to win his way into the Championship 4 last weekend in Phoenix.
Destiny, momentum … confidence, also, which could be key.
“Some drivers really don’t waver a lot when they’re confident or uncertain. I think Denny is a much, much better racecar driver when he’s very confident,” Earnhardt said. “He seems to make different decisions, push himself into situations, succeed in that kind of environment. I think the confidence that he has this year could be the difference-maker for him to win the championship. I don’t know that he had that in the past times when he was coming into this type of scenario.”
NBC Sports surrounds the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series Championships this weekend with more than 20 hours of trackside coverage from Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Race coverage begins Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, with the Xfinity Series Championship, and culminates with Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
Story by Chris Graham
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