Hamlin, Gabehart channeling experience for Martinsville time

In the closing minutes of the latest podcast episode, Denny Hamlin was given a statistic that made him hang his head.

On Sunday, November 3, it will be 3,507 days since his last race win at Martinsville Speedway. For this important point, the calendar needs to be turned back to March 29, 2015. This Sunday he will take the green flag there as his season remains in the balance.

“Do you all realize how many races we dominate and they are always autumn races?” Hamlin said about Harmful Actions. “We are dominating the autumn races. We led for millions of laps and in 2021 we led the race with a bad pit stop and finished eighth with too many laps to go.

“There’s always been something holding us back from winning there and Chris and I just want to win at Martinsville. Like all the final fours it’s great but we want to win there too. It’s such a great race track and a track I’m so proud of, I’m so proud of it. I want to win so bad.”

If the pendulum finally swung towards them, the elusive victory would put Hamlin in the title hunt. Sunday will be the 12th race the duo will run together at Martinsville Speedway since teaming up in 2019.

“I chose not to look at how many laps we led at this track without getting a win together, but I think it’s probably close to some kind of record for a crew chief,” Gabehart said. “I would love to finally get this done. Winning at Martinsville is a huge deal for me, especially as a sprinter, and the fall race is the last race of the playoffs. This is something special. “Of course it would be great to achieve this.”

In the last 11 races at Martinsville, Hamlin has led 912 laps, won the pole and finished in the top five six times. He led 534 laps in the fall race alone.

Victory is the easiest way to advance, but Gabehart acknowledged that points are not out of the equation. Hamlin trails by 18 points, so the first two phases will determine the tone of the team’s attack in the final stretch.

It’s almost ironic that the topic has once again turned to Martinsville. A week ago, Hamlin was two laps away from victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but Ryan Blaney and then Tyler Reddick had other plans. It was one of the defeats that the team regretted the most.

Ending aside, Homestead was another high and then low moment for the band. There have been many in the postseason that started with engine trouble in qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway and carried into the race with poor handling and poor performance. There were troubles in the pit lane, incidents on the track and results in every area.

“I told someone before that this was pretty crazy,” Gabehart said. “I looked at the stats before and I think through the first eight races we had the third-best average in the play-offs and overall we were pretty high because of the difference in the schedule. But it certainly doesn’t feel like that and when you look at the staging points it doesn’t really feel like that. Play-offs We’ve got very little compared to the ones in the ‘s, which speaks to the idea of ​​having to scrape and claw all race just to get a finish. Well, those stage points, if you act honest all day you’ll get them.

“So it was a grind. But in my opinion, it’s the band’s experience that brought us here; Denny’s experience, my experience, Lambert’s experience, the trust in each other to know the situation and to know it until the last checkered flag drops. , the day is not over yet and I think we have managed to preserve a lot of things thanks to this. We caught a break at Talladega, which was huge for our year, but at the same time we didn’t catch a lot of breaks at places like Talladega, it just happens. I don’t look at this as luck. When our number finally came up, I looked it up. But there will definitely be a lot going on throughout this playoffs.”

The team needs to be ready for the moment that will change their playoff story in Martinsville. Gabehart pointed out that they were not ready at Kansas Speedway as they struggled on pit road when they could have won. Conditions then dictated that we take no more risks than necessary to get out of the first lap at Bristol Motor Speedway. Homestead did not fall into their path.

“The key to this level of experience and this group is understanding that when the caution flag comes your way, when you have a fast car or the car is approaching you, you have to be there to take advantage of the situation down pit road,” Gabehart said. “I think experience helps a lot.”