INDIANAPOLIS — Denny Hamlin had another bittersweet moment at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Sure, one of the drivers for the 23XI Racing team he co-owns again reached victory lane at a NASCAR Cup Series crown jewel race, Corey Heim in this case. But for Hamlin, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, it also was a brutal reminder about how frustrating the annual Brickyard race has been for him: 18 starts, no wins and another top-five finish.
The good news: All is not lost.
The 45-year-old Hamlin heads into a rare midseason weekend off still leading the Cup Series points standings, as one of four drivers locked into the playoffs and second in wins as everyone else spends the next four races trying to fill the other 12 postseason spots.
In the meantime, Hamlin can start planning to add the other missing link on his resumé: winning a season championship on NASCAR’s highest level.
“I haven’t really thought too much about the future,” Hamlin said in Indianapolis last weekend when asked about possibly retiring after the 2027 season, when his contract with JGR is set to expire. “Obviously, (Joe Gibbs Racing) has good plans set in place and whatnot. So, no, I haven’t put any more thought into or second thoughts or anything like that. So it’s just really riding the wave of week to week right now and continue trying to get more wins.”
The timing for a break couldn’t be better for Hamlin — along with some other top contenders.
Tyler Reddick owns a season-best five wins and is second in points, but he hasn’t finished first since his April victory at Kansas Speedway. The driver of the 23XI Racing No. 45 Toyota finished 10th in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis after qualifying third.
Ryan Blaney is third, but the Team Penske driver’s streak of 11 consecutive top-11 finishes was snapped on Indy’s 2.5-mile oval after he was caught up in a nine-car crash late in the race that dropped him to 26th and cost him the $1 million In-Season Challenge prize.
Ty Gibbs, one of Hamlin’s teammates, became the fourth driver to clinch a playoff spot, doing so by earning points in each of the first two stages at Indy, leading the second-most laps (46) and finishing 12th.
Pole winner Carson Hocevar, who drives for Spire Motorsports, produced his second top-10 result in three weeks, but that came after posting just two such finishes in the eight weeks prior. He’s fifth in the standings.
Even past series champs have not been immune from problems.
In addition to Blaney, the 2023 champ, Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott, the 2020 champ, has finished outside the top 10 in eight consecutive races, and teammate Kyle Larson’s winless streak reached 46 race thanks to a flat left rear tire that sent him hard into the wall at Indy. Elliott finished 37th Sunday while Larson — who won his second Cup Series title last year — was last in the 39-car field.
Still, Elliott is sixth, Larson is eighth, and both know they still have time to get things right.
“Storylines can change quick, as we all know,” Elliott said. “So three weeks of running good and y’all will be talking about how these guys are championship favorites.”
Once the break ends, though, everyone knows the intensity and pressure will crank up again quickly, too.
The Cup Series heads to Iowa Speedway on Aug. 9, then Virginia’s Richmond Raceway (Aug. 15) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Aug. 23), where the practice sessions will be extended from 25 minutes to 50 minutes before the regular-season finale at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway.
After that, the 16 playoff participants embark on a nerve-wracking 10-week shootout for the title, beginning with the Southern 500 on Sept. 6 at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway.
For many Cup Series drivers, the 0.875-mile oval at Iowa also will be a welcome site because plenty of them started racing on short tracks.
“I grew up on a three-eighths mile asphalt track similarly shaped to Iowa,” said Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who is trying to fight his way into the playoffs despite having no wins and ranking 21st. “I feel like that’s much more what I just ran for so much of my childhood on. So that feels more natural to me than the big oval here (in Indy).”
The break also is a reminder of the high-stakes game still to come — especially for someone like Hamlin, whose partnership with 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan has helped extend his legacy even as he continues chasing two of the biggest prizes the Cup Series offers.
“It’s great that we’ve been able to make the changes that we’ve had and built this race team into championship contenders, and it’s exceeded really all the expectations I’ve had for it in such a short amount of time,” Hamlin said. ” It’s certainly an honor to be amongst a lot of sport greats.”