Good news for Denny Hamlin heading into the next weekend of NASCAR racing.
The entry list won’t include either Neil Bonnett or Harry Gant.
The bad news for Denny Hamlin? We’ll get to that shortly.
But first, let’s continue appreciating something we haven’t seen since Denny was literally learning to walk and preparing to blow out a grand total of one candle on his birthday cake.
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That’s right, it was 1981 when a driver last won three straight races after also winning the pole in those three straight weeks. Denny is now just the fourth driver to do that in a racing series that started in 1949.
He’s also won four of the last five, if you include the Dover All-Star Race, and it might’ve been five of five if it hadn’t rained at Charlotte.
One of the previous three 3-peaters, Darrell Waltrip, actually made it four straight and, again, we’ll soon explain where and how DW did that and why Denny won’t be so lucky.
But first, we tip our officially licensed caps toward that No. 11 Toyota team while also casting a side-eye and wondering what that group has figured out and how long it’ll take others to stumble upon the recipe.
And yes, that’s what’s happening here. Denny is a top-tier racer with a top-tier team, but he’s not the only one. Streaks like this are either due to an enormous amount of great breaks and zero bad breaks (rare, but yes, possible) or something an engineer uncovered that is leading to a couple extra horsepower or several ounces of downforce (more likely).
Let’s get into it a little more while also doing a drive-by on another topic or two and wondering if a banana is supposed to bring more good luck or bad …
First Gear: Will the Denny’s Grand Slam get is bacon?
When Darrell Waltrip won his third straight race from the pole in 1981, he was the first to do it since Bobby Allison a decade earlier. Richard Petty (of course) was the first to do it, in 1966, and because he’s Richard Petty, he did it again the next year.
But only DW made it four straight. His fourth dominant weekend came at Rockingham, and it didn’t exactly crash and burn in Week 5 at Atlanta: Waltrip finished second to Harry Gant in qualifying and second to Neil Bonnett on Sunday.
Unfortunately for Denny Hamlin, NASCAR isn’t going to either Rockingham or Atlanta in the next two weeks. Instead, back-to-back road courses are on deck — the new-to-NASCAR San Diego street course, followed by the familiar Sonoma Raceway on the other end of California.
At your nearest Denny’s restaurant, the famous Grand Slam includes pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage. Denny Hamlin, to complete his own Grand Slam, will need to develop a taste for right-hand turns.
Here’s the bad news mentioned earlier: Denny has made 67 career road-course starts, and you can count his victories on one finger. It came 10 years ago at Watkins Glen back when he was on a decent little run of road-racin’ (four straight top-4 finishes).
In his last 13 roadies, he’s recorded just two top-10s, with fourth being his best finish.
Second Gear: Tyler Reddick will claw back some of that lead
So, while Tyler Reddick might be watching Denny grow quite large in his mirror, there’s reason to think Reddick might return some of that lost cushion to his points lead in the current NASCAR Cup standings.
Like a Peterbilt’s blown Michelin on I-95, we’ve been watching Reddick’s lead fall apart in large chunks. Once comfortably over 100 points, it’s now just 19 after Sunday at Pocono, where Reddick’s Stage 3 hustle earned him a runner-up finish after getting no bonus points in the first two stages.
If you climb atop the Jayco and stare toward yonder horizon, you might see Ryan Blaney sitting there in third place, a whopping 146 points out of second place.
While Denny usually returns to the mid-pack on road courses, Reddick is always near the front. His four road wins have all come since 2022, including his breaking of Shane van Gisbergen’s stranglehold earlier this year at Austin. Barring trouble, Reddick should rake up some stage points, finish well and bump up that 19-point lead over the next two weeks.
Third Gear: Toyota on a NASCAR roll this season
A look at the updated standings tells a certain tale about manufacturers. Seven of the nine full-time Toyota teams are inside that top-16 cutoff for the postseason Chase.
Seven of the 10 Ford teams are outside of it. If you took a broader, big-picture look at modern history instead of this snapshot, you’d know this was part of the ebb and flow of automobile racing, which is often dictated by the ebb and flow of automotive technology.
Among the Toyota surge is the No. 43 Legacy Motorsports team and driver Erik Jones, who jumped three spots this past weekend and now sits in a tie for 15th, which is the highest he’s ever finished in nine previous full-time seasons.
Jones has finished sixth or better in three of the past five races, and was a decent 11th and 13th in the other two. His Legacy teammate, John Hunter Nemechek, tied his career best by finishing fourth at Pocono.
And now the disclaimer. You don’t have to look far to find a longtime NASCAR fan who never came to grips with Toyota joining the sport earlier this century. Many of them also hate the modern influx of road-course racing, so they’re probably not gonna like Fourth Gear below, but it’ll end with good news for them. Promise.
Fourth Gear: NASCAR races around a Navy yard
NASCAR has made some big scheduling splashes in recent years, and this year’s biggest arrives this week on the banks of the Pacific Ocean. It’s bound to be a spectacle as all three NASCAR national divisions race around the Naval Base Coronado, a stone’s throw from San Diego and practically in the shadow of the carrier USS Carl Vinson.
Even the staunchest oval-track fan might make an exception for such things.
Those folks need to know there’s another road race next week, but after that, no more for the entire second half of the 2026 Cup season.
Feel better?
— Email Ken Willis a ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR history for Denny Hamlin but Denny’s Grand Slam won’t happen in San Diego
Reporting by Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal | USA TODAY Network
