After a rough start to the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, Denny Hamlin has now recorded his first victory of the season at Richmond Raceway.
Last season Hamlin recorded eight top-five finishes in the first nine races and 13 in total, but however, found it difficult to win a race throughout the season and he had to wait until the playoffs to get his first win of the season.
Contrary to last season, Hamlin has already got himself a win but it has come about through disappointing performance until now. He failed to finish Daytona-500 for the first time in his career and hadn’t finished higher than 13th place in the first six races of the 2022 season.
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While the win has come early this season making him the seventh driver to do so this season and also tying him in the 17th spot on the all-time win list.
However, the win is also making Hamlin close in on a record that he might not want, i.e, the most wins from the Cup driver without winning the championship. The record is currently held by Junior Johnson who had 50 Cup wins without winning the championship. Also to be considered is the fact that Johnson was not a full-time driver, unlike Hamlin.
Hamlin is no doubt one of the best races in NASCAR. However, his lack of Cup Series title always excludes him from the conversation that he could be among the NASCAR greats. While he still has a lot of years to change that status, right now he will have to do being the most successful driver without the Cup title.