{"id":91714,"date":"2025-11-30T05:31:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/hamlin-takes-the-pole-in-phoenix-will-it-be-his-year-in-nascar\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T05:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:31:06","slug":"hamlin-takes-the-pole-in-phoenix-will-it-be-his-year-in-nascar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nascar\/hamlin-takes-the-pole-in-phoenix-will-it-be-his-year-in-nascar\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamlin takes the pole in Phoenix: Will it be his year in NASCAR?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hamlin Seeks to Crown His Career with the NASCAR Title<\/h2>\n\nDenny Hamlin, in his twentieth full season, is about to leave behind the label of the best NASCAR driver without a championship. Hamlin achieved the pole position at Phoenix Raceway, in the NASCAR championship final, giving him a crucial advantage for the decisive race.\n\nThe Cup title will be contested between Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Chase Briscoe, and William Byron and Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports.\n\nHamlin, who will lead the starting grid, has had a standout season with six victories, the most in the series. His victory in Las Vegas last month secured his place in the final, allowing him to prepare his car and mindset for three weeks.\n\n\n
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\u201cI think the benefit was winning in Vegas because I was able to get a lot of work done before this week. That way, this week isn\u2019t as busy,\u201d Hamlin commented.<\/p>\n\nDenny Hamlin<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nHamlin has remained calm and in good spirits, treating the week like any other in Phoenix, although with more media attention. He will have the support of a large group of friends and family.\n\nAfter setting a time of 133.759 mph in his Toyota, Hamlin secured the first starting position, giving him the advantage of choosing the pit stall and could reduce the chances of speeding penalties.\n\nDespite favorable expectations, Hamlin acknowledges the difficulty of the competition. He has lost the championship on several occasions, so luck could change on this occasion.\n\n\n

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\u201cYou can only help the things you can control. Obviously, we will do the best we can for 312 laps. I hope it will be enough,\u201d Hamlin said.<\/p>\n\nDenny Hamlin<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nIn the fight for the title, Larson is the only driver who already has a championship. Byron, for his part, returns to the final for the third consecutive year, while Briscoe makes his debut in the race for the title. Hamlin, three-time winner of the Daytona 500, and considered one of the best NASCAR drivers without a championship, returns to the final since 2021.\n\nByron and Larson qualified in second and third place respectively, while Briscoe finished in twelfth place. Briscoe expressed his surprise at his position, acknowledging that he didn’t have a good lap.\n\nThis will be at least the sixth time Hamlin has the opportunity to win the championship, and so far, he has not been successful. He has suffered setbacks in the past, including a spin in the 2010 final and problems in pit stops and strategies in subsequent years.\n\nHamlin has become the public’s favorite, and even his competitors recognize that a championship for him would be well received.\n\n\n

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\u201cEveryone loves a story like that, where someone is approaching the end of their career, and all that, I can see why people would root for it,\u201d Larson commented.<\/p>\n\nKyle Larson<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nBriscoe added that it would be a shame if Hamlin didn’t win a championship after his outstanding career.\n\nHamlin faces the championship race after a crew chief change in the offseason, a decision he initially didn’t support. However, his new crew chief, Gayle, adapted quickly and has brought a car to the final for the first time in his career.\n\n\n

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\u201cThere are four really good cars, really good teams, really good team bosses. I just want to win the race and be the champion,\u201d Gayle said.<\/p>\n\nChris Gayle<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nHamlin’s 60th victory placed him in tenth place on the all-time wins list. Hamlin has been pursuing this milestone as a consolation prize for not having a Cup title and wanted to achieve it before his father, who has a serious health problem, passed away.\n\nHamlin stated that he wants to win on Sunday, because it’s the last chance for his father to see him.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hamlin Seeks to Crown His Career with the NASCAR Title Denny Hamlin, in his twentieth full season, is about to leave behind the label of the best NASCAR driver without a championship. Hamlin achieved the pole position at Phoenix Raceway, in the NASCAR championship final, giving him a crucial advantage for the decisive race. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[514,180,182,9558],"class_list":{"0":"post-91714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-championship","9":"tag-denny-hamlin","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-phoenix"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}