Denny Hamlin expects to see a lot of strategy come into play in Saturday's Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
With a rules package designed to lower downforce and side force and a unique event divided into segments of 50, 50 and 13 laps — with the additional twist of the starting order for the final segment determined by a random draw that decides if the top nine, 10 or 11 cars will pit for a mandatory four-tire stop between the final two segments — the race brings a challenging set of variables for teams and drivers.
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And that, defending race winner Hamlin says, is where the strategy portion of racing will come into play.
"There's definitely a lot of variables coming up this weekend at Charlotte, between the rules package and obviously the format," he said. "It's going to be very interesting to see how it all plays out. As a driver, there's going to be a lot of strategy played with crew chiefs and drivers. To see how it all works out, we'll have to see on track Saturday.
"I personally look forward to it. It should be pretty exciting."
TV coverage of Saturday's All-Star Race begins 7 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.
Hamlin applauds the rules changes, saying, "I'm all for the changes and anything that can reduce corner speed that is going to make for better racing for the fans."
And while the rules changes could upset the balance of which teams are strong in races, Hamlin certainly must be pleased with Joe Gibbs Racing's success this season.
Not only is his teammate Kyle Busch the defending series champion, but each of the organization's four drivers has won at least one race. Hamlin won the season-opening Daytona 500 and has five top 10 finishes. Matt Kenseth joined the winners with his victory at Dover on Sunday and also four top 10 finishes. Busch has three Cup wins; Carl Edwards has two.
That gives JGR seven wins in 12 races. Not a bad start.
Hamlin has been with the organization in the Cup ranks full time since 2006. He has seen the organization building and adapting to reach this level. It is historically difficult for a Sprint Cup program, no matter what level it reaches, to get all of its teams to the point where they can contend for a win week to week.
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Joe Gibbs Racing has done that this season. How?
"I know it wasn't just overnight, by any means," Hamlin said. "We constantly are working to get better even right now. It's not like we just are sitting on what we got and expect to go out there and win. I mean, we're constantly trying to make everything better within our race team, whether it be our pit stops, no mistakes on pit road, making our cars faster. We're always striving to be better.
"A lot of it, too, is that we have more information now than we've ever had. With the addition of Martin (Truex Jr.) as kind of a stepbrother teammate, that's more information for the drivers, more information for the crew chiefs to share. … I think it's just everyone's working so good together. We went from having three cars to four to now five (with Truex). It's just making us all better on Sunday and race day. When you have teammates as good as I know I have, it helps me learn quite a bit more. There's a lot to soak in."
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Truex, driving for one-car Furniture Row Racing, is an affiliate through his team to Gibbs and Toyota. He lost by inches to Hamlin at Daytona and has four other top 10 finishes.
That puts Gibbs teams and Truex among the favorites this weekend at Charlotte.
Hamlin, though, will have his eye on more than just adjusting to the cars and format.
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He'll also have another focus in mind throughout the upcoming Sprint Cup races — staying out of trouble on pit road. Hamlin has been a frequent victim of pit-road penalties this season, from speeding on pit road to team penalties.
It's safe to say that pit road, and timing of pit stops, has not been kind to Hamlin to date this season.
"We're up to nine now, which is a pretty big number through all the races," he said. "Even (at Dover), there was twice we pitted under green, and both times we got caught by a caution. That was a total of three laps down that we went, two laps once, then one lap the next.
"It's just too hard to overcome it. I mean, our results don't look nearly as good as our teammates by any means. A lot of it is hurting ourselves by having to go to the back of the pack so many times during the race. We need to have a smooth race. We're going to get it together eventually. It's taking a little bit of time. I'm very confident by the time we get to the next month or two, we're going to have some of these bugs worked out and we'll be contending for wins like our teammates are."
And that could make Hamlin even more of a threat as the Chase for the Sprint Cup — and his latest battle for a first Cup title — nears.