NASCAR superstar has vehemently reacted to reports of an abuse incident in the Charlotte

 NASCAR superstar has vehemently reacted to reports of an abuse incident in the Charlotte

Denny Hamlin did just enough in the first six races of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, and now finds himself one of the final eight drivers remaining with four races left to go before a champion is crowned at Phoenix on Nov. 10.

To this point, Hamlin hasn’t exactly been in win at all costs mode. Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic believes that will change starting with this Sunday’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas. Speaking on “The Teardown” podcast following the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Roval, Bianchi explained why the schedule ahead plays into Hamlin’s strengths.

“I look at these next three races — they survived the chaos of the last two rounds with all of these tracks that are all unwieldly, circumstantial in some cases, and the next three tracks are very straightforward,” Bianchi said. “Las Vegas is a traditional mile and a half racetrack, they go to Homestead and then Martinsville. He’s great at all three of these tracks, like legit very good.

“They have speed, and they don’t have to worry about drafting strategy or anything like that. They don’t have to worry about navigating a road course which Denny will tell you is not his forte and he had to do it in the last two rounds. Like, there’s none of that.”

Denny Hamlin advances to Round of 8, one of the championship favorites

Hamlin has eight career victories between Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville, the three racetracks on the Round of 8 schedule. He enters this round as the No. 6 seed, eight points below the cutline.

Despite the loaded field around him, Bianchi sees Hamlin going into “kill mode” and possibly winning his first career Cup Series championship.

“I think this team is gonna be in kill mode after everything they got through at Talladega, Atlanta and Watkins Glen, even today [at the Roval] because it started off bad for them, they had to overcome that. I just think they’re gonna be in attack mode and they recognize these are three prime tracks. Like, we don’t just need to go there and run top 5, we can win, and I think they’re gonna win one of the next three