RICHMOND, Va. — Kyle Busch celebrated his Las Vegas victory this season like it was the biggest win of his career.
From a distance, Denny Hamlin couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. Every driver wants to win on his home track, and Busch crossed that goal off his list with his March win in Vegas.
Hamlin, his teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, desperately wants to win at Richmond International Raceway and is confident a win on his home track would be far bigger than Busch’s accomplishment. Hamlin starts third in Saturday night’s race.
“Vegas is a big area. I’m from here. I’m from right down the road,” Hamlin said Friday, pointing his arm toward Chesterfield, his hometown located roughly 20 minutes South of RIR.
“I think it’s a little smaller community than what Vegas is. Vegas fans out there are more people that are from here, there and everywhere. The Richmond fans are the people that are from here. I think it would probably mean a little bit more to me than what the Vegas win means to him.”
It’s why it took Hamlin almost two months to get over the disappointment after last year’s near miss at Richmond. He opened the weekend with a win in the Nationwide Series, and knew he had an excellent shot at the sweep with the stout car JGR gave him for the Sprint Cup Series main event.
He started from the pole and never looked back, leading 381 laps while steadily pulling away from the field. But a leaking right front tire snatched away his chance for a victory. Forced to slow his car, Hamlin was caught by Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 11 laps to go.
Then the tire began to fail, and Hamlin had to stop his car on the track to get NASCAR to call a caution so he could pit. In an instant, Hamlin went from daydreaming about his victory celebration to wanting to rip off his steering wheel.
He wound up a devastating 24th.
“It was just frustrating,” he said. “You can’t describe the emotion. It’s just one of those points in a driver’s career where he says that ‘This is the race that this track owes me.’
“I forgot it was last year. I thought it was 10 years ago.”
Hamlin has an idea of how a home track can torment a driver — former teammate Tony Stewart was famously haunted at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before winning the first of his two Brickyard races in 2005. And he was aware of Dale Earnhardt’s famous struggles in the Daytona 500, a race he didn’t win until his 20th attempt.
He doesn’t want to suffer a similar fate.
But Stewart is confident Hamlin will eventually have his day at Richmond.
“The good thing is he’s been close and he knows it’s just a matter of time before he gets one here,” Stewart said. “I don’t think it’s something where he lays awake at night because he feels like he’s never going to get one. The good thing is you get two chances a year here. You only get one at Indy.”
Indeed, Hamlin has two shots a year to make it to Victory Lane in Richmond. And since his first Cup visit to RIR, he’s always challenged.
Hamlin has led laps in all six of his career Cup starts, started from the pole twice and finished sixth or better four times. Before the tire failed him last spring, his previous worst finish was 15th his rookie season.
When he tries for that elusive win Saturday night, Hamlin will likely have nearly 50 friends and family cheering him on from the grandstands. He opted out of racing Friday night’s Nationwide race, giving him the opportunity to sit in the stands with them for the first time since 2004.
Then he hopes to give them a show on Saturday night, this time without the late-race disappointment. He’s certain a win would be the biggest of his career, surpassing even a possible Daytona 500 victory.
“Winning the Daytona 500 has a lot of prestige to it over the long run,” he said. “But this, for me, would be really good here at home.”
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