Denny Hamlin breaks down the recipe to win a NASCAR Championship

After watching NASCAR Championship weekend unfold, Denny Hamlin thinks he’s cracked the code to winning a title. Now, Hamlin fell short this season, being eliminated in the Round of 8. However, he’s got some thoughts on the matter.

On his latest episode, and I assume the season finale of Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin explained his view on championships now. While it isn’t exactly a novel idea, it’s become apparent to Hamlin that Phoenix is the thing that matters, well, and the Round of 8.

Ben Rhodes wasn’t dominant at any point this season. However, he did just enough in the final four races to get himself a championship. Ryan Blaney became elite in the final five weeks with two wins and two runner-up finishes.

“You gotta just be good at Phoenix now,” Hamlin lamented on his podcast. “I mean, is that the new riddle to the championship?”

“It appears that riddle works. It’s just, focus on a couple of races.”

Denny Hamlin even broke down how he believes he can win a championship in the future.

“If people say, ‘Well how are you going to win a championship next year?’ I’m like, f*** I gotta run better at Phoenix.”

Plain and simple, he has to get better and so does his team.

“It doesn’t matter [what we do] unless me, the 11 team gets better at Phoenix, it doesn’t matter. We could win 35 races, it doesn’t matter. If you’re not really really good at Phoenix, none of this matters. So…”

If only it were so simple.

Denny Hamlin has to ‘figure it out’

When asked what he has to do to get better, Hamlin didn’t give specifics. However, he did say there were a few things that could be done. He pointed to Christopher Bell’s limited run in the championship. Bell wasn’t nearly as good in qualifying as he had been before. And his long run speed didn’t muster up to Blaney’s.

So, what is the plan here? Simulator time? Going to the car and figuring out what setup is going to work best? Hamlin isn’t 100% sure, but he knows what he saw this year. Two drivers that for one reason or another got really good at the end of the season.

“You gotta figure it out, there’s different ways you can work on it. I look in general, Truex was somewhat up front, we [JGR] just weren’t that strong. Generally speaking. Even C Bell didn’t qualify his normal, in the race he was okay. I was watching plenty of SMT and the 12 was still stronger, much stronger than he was in the long run so it was going to be difficult.

“It’s interesting, we knew this [is] the format, we’ve always known this [is the] format, but this is the first year that, in my opinion, the Ben Rhodes [team] and the Ryan Blaney’s [team] were, they just got good in the last couple of races and won the championship. And when I say good, they got great. They didn’t get good, they got great. And won. So, can you just hang around and get past some of these summer races and whatever and just win it in the end? It appears that [methodology] works.”

Denny Hamlin can say it’s a simple solution. Just run well at Phoenix. However, you have to get there first. From there, you can worry about the Phoenix setup. Joe Gibbs Racing had some bad luck in the playoffs, but maybe it was more than just luck that factored into the postseason shortcomings.