Denny Hamlin is giving some props to the performance of one of his adversaries in Chase Elliott for his performance over the last couple of weeks.
While Elliott missed out on the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for a myriad of reasons, his car still made it to the Owner’s Cup Playoffs, where still has a chance of winning it all. While fans may not particularly care much about the latter, it’s certainly weighing heavy on the mind of people like Hamlin and Elliott’s car owner, Rick Hendrick.
As Elliott looks to continue his run in the Owner’s Cup, Hamlin took his his Actions Detrimental podcast to evaluate some of the juiciest storylines that may be going over the head of fans at the moment.
“We’ve got some storylines here. Cars that are in, cars that are out. Chase don’t have a yellow-spoiler, but he’s in. His car’s in. A lot of money being exchanged hands here, that people don’t know about, that may not mean a lot to you, but it means a lot to others. So we’ll see how that plays out,” Hamlin explained. “The No. 9 car could run deep. I mean, No. 9 car could win the championship and nobody would even know it.
“… That’s why they have owner’s points, and that’s why they pay us, is because you know, is it fair to Hendrick Motorsports, if Chase breaks his leg, is it fair to, ‘Hey, you’ve just costs that team millions and millions of dollars, because of an accident?’ No, as long as Rick Hendrick continues to invest and spend the money to put that car on the race-track every week, he deserves to get paid to do it, and that’s why they pay us off of owners instead of drivers.”
Alas, that would be a nice cherry on top of a disappointing season for Elliott. While he can’t capture his second title as a driver, delivering Hendrick Motorsports an Owner’s Cup would certainly make the sting feel a little better.
On the other hand, it isn’t welcome news for Hamlin that Elliott still has something to race for. Along with the drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Hamlin will now have to contend with Elliott for wins and track position, and he’s no push-over, especially not for Hamlin.
While Denny Hamlin is in great shape to capture his first NASCAR title, anything can happen, especially with Chase Elliott racing for his own benefit moving forward.