May 11, 2025
Denny Hamlin is going to be one to watch out for in Sunday's AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway. In six of the last seven races at this track, Hamlin has walked away with a top-five finish, and he hasn't finished worse than eighth at Kansas since the 2021 season. He's a four-time winner at this track and has the best driver rating (113.6) in the series over the six Next Gen races here. The next driver on that list is Hamlin's teammate, Christopher Bell, at 105.4. This weekend, Hamlin looked steady in practice, and noted that he was really happy with the balance of his No. 11 Toyota. He ranked ninth-best in 20-lap average despite being in the somewhat-slower Group 1 during practice. Hamlin qualified 14th for Sunday's race and is a prime DFS option, even at his $10,200 salary on DraftKings. He has room for Place Differential points as well as dominator and potential race-winning upside.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Sports Illustrated
May 4, 2025
Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing will start eighth after qualifying for Sunday's Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. Hamlin now has six top-10 starting positions gained from qualifying during the 2025 season so far. In 34 starts at Texas, Hamlin has three wins and 16 top-10 finishes, with four finishes of 11th or better in the last Cup events at the site. In 10 races completed this year, Hamlin has two wins, six top-10 finishes, and an average finish of 10.8. In practice for Sunday's race, Hamlin ranked 28th in overall lap averages and was seventh or higher in the 20, 25, and 30 consecutive lap average categories. Based on his equipment, recent Texas history, and 2025 performance so far, Hamlin is a driver likely to compete for a top-5 finish.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
April 27, 2025
While Denny Hamlin was arguably the best drafting track driver in the Gen-6 era of NASCAR, he hasn't seemed to have the same speed with the Next Gen chassis on these tracks. Since 2020, he's had an odd streak where he has finished outside the top ten in each of the last four spring races but finished inside the top ten in the last six fall races. However, it would be foolish to base any predictions on that likely random trend. Much like Alex Bowman and his teammate Chase Briscoe, Hamlin's value is likely limited because he qualified too well to earn many Place Differential points but too poorly to likely dominate, although admittedly he is more likely to dominant than Bowman or Briscoe. Since almost all the other top stars either qualified worse or are more likely to dominate (the Penske cars), there are too many better options to justify starting Hamlin.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
April 14, 2025
When Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin started on the second row in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol, most people expected one or the other to dominate and overtake front-row starters Alex Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. It turned out to be Larson, who led over 400 laps for the second consecutive Bristol race, but Hamlin ran in the top five for the entire race (except for pit stop exchanges) and eventually finished second. He never had anything for Larson but was also never really challenged for second in the second half of the race after Bowman's engine failure. Although he failed to win his third race in a row, he gained 19 points on William Byron in the championship and now trails him by a mere 30 points.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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