by Patrick Zier | Apr 12, 2025 |
It was 2004, and Joe Gibbs Racing was thinking about adding a developmental driver to its roster, someone who eventually might be able to move up and take over one of its Cup cars, and Denny Hamlin was under consideration.
Gibbs and his son J.D. had been observing Hamlin and they liked what they saw.
“I go all the way back to Denny when we first got him,” Gibbs recalled on NASCAR’s website after Hamlin won at Darlington last Sunday, his second straight victory this season.
“Our final test for him before we signed him; J.D., who found him, my son, said let’s put him in a car at Darlington,” Gibbs related. “He’d never been there. Let’s put him in an Xfinity car and see what he does” Hamlin started 27th and raced his way to a top 10 finish.
“He finished eighth,” Gibbs said. “J.D. told me, he said, I think we need to sign this guy. I said I agree.”
In late 2006, Hamlin replaced a struggling Jason Lefler at the Cup level and he hasn’t looked back. With wins at Darlington last week and Martinsville the week before, Hamlin has now won 56 races, more than any driver in the history of JGR.
Hamlin, who is closing in on 45 and is NASCAR’s oldest regularly competing Cup driver, has been through many changes over the years and his ability to adapt has kept him viable where many others would have long since retired.
The NextGen car, introduced in 2022 and very different from anything else NASCAR has ever raced, is the latest example. Hamlin has worked diligently to figure it out and his willingness to pay attention to detail, to be able to tell his crew exactly what he needs to be competitive, gives him an edge over the majority of drivers who rely more on pure physical skill.
Darlington is a perfect example. Hamlin led just 10 of the 297 laps, but he protected his tires throughout the race, crucial at Darlington, which put him in position to win when the opportunity arose.
“We’re all just running so equal, I don’t know how else to say it, but we’re just so close,” Hamlin commented. “It makes it really, really difficult to pass.
“It was very similar to last week (Martinsville, where Hamlin had a dominating car and led 274 laps). We’re all kind of falling off at the same rate through the runs, right?
“We’ve got a two second drop off here, and that’s good, but we’re all dropping off at the same rate because the cars are all so similar,” Hamlin said.
“Once the tires wear out, we pit. That’s where you’ll typically see a huge disparity in speed between the cars,” Hamlin said. “It’s very similar to last week where right when you’re starting to see some comers and goers, everyone kind of pits to save themselves.”
So a driver who can manage his tires, who doesn’t burn them up trying to get the lead, will have an edge at the end of a run which puts him in position to get the best finish possible. And after Kyle Larson’s crash near the end of the race, that driver was Hamlin.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Bristol: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winners at Bristol: First race-Hamlin. Second race-Larson. Top five in first race last year: 1-Hamlin, 2-Martin Truex, 3-Brad Keselowski, 4-Alex Bowman, 5-Larson.
Last week’s OGS Darlington picks: 1-Larson, 2-Bubba Wallace, 3-William Byron. Darlington winner: Hamlin. OGS season record: 3-3.
OGS Competition Index top 10: 1-Bell 187 points, 2-Hamlin 180, 3-Byron 146, 4-Larson 104, 5-Josh Berry 77, 6-Wallace 73, 7-Tyler Reddick 67, 8-Bowman 48, 9-Chase Elliott 45, 10-Daniel Suarez 41.
OGS Competition Index top 10 on intermediate tracks: 1-Byron 95, 2-Larson 64,3-Hamlin 63, 4-Berry 53, 5-Bowman 48, 6-Suarez, Wallace 41, 8-Ryan Blaney, Reddick 32, 10-Bell, Ryan Preece 30.
by Patrick Zier | Apr 11, 2025 |
TAMPA – The intensity is still there, the burning desire to succeed. But it seems to be a bit more controlled now, perhaps because there has been some success, because the plan seems to be working.
Three years ago, Alex Golesh couldn’t be sure of that. He was a young guy who had never been a head coach before, who had his own ideas about how you needed to go about things, build a winning culture, and South Florida was going to give him the opportunity to prove his point.
From the start, Golesh’s intensity was obvious. He was driven. It often seemed he was trying to cram 25 hours into a 24 hour day. When it came to USF football, no detail was too small to escape Golesh’s attention.
Everything that impacted the program was important if this was going to work. And he would make it work. Nothing else seemed to matter.
Golesh stepped into a make-or-break situation at South Florida. His immediate predecessor, Jeff Scott, had seemed to be the perfect choice to lead USF out of the college football wilderness.
He was poised, articulate. He had mastered the nuances of coaching at Clemson, had the right pedigree. There was new energy at USF. And then Scott went 4-26, won just one conference game and was fired at midseason the year before Golesh arrived, and South Florida was back in the basement once again.
So Golesh had to turn this around, for himself and USF. If he failed, both he and football at South Florida would become irrelevant, and Golesh would not let that happen. His single mindedness in that regard could make people feel somewhat uneasy, uncomfortable, but Golesh forged ahead.
And he got results. His first year, Golish led the Bulls to a 7-6 record including a bowl win over San Jose State. It was USF’s first winning season since 2018 when Charlie Strong also went 7-6. A second 7-6 season followed in 2034 including another bowl win.
All this was critical to Golesh’s success, and the first year was crucial. While he had no doubt what he was doing would work, he had nothing substantial to prove it. If USF had floundered under Golesh that first year as it had under Scott, there would have been doubt. Another losing season would have created more apprehension, even if Golesh himself remained steadfast to his plan.
“Two springs ago it was like, and you’ve heard me say this before, but it was gloves off every day,” Golesh commented. “You’d get done and you’d get home and Lex (Alexis, his wife) would be like ‘Man, how was the day?’ And I’m literally, I felt like I was in a 12 round bout every day.
“It was a dog fight,” Golesh continued. “Now, we’re at a point where we’re constantly guarding the culture but like I said, the standard at which you do everything takes forever to establish.
“I think you’re constantly building the culture,” Golesh went on. I tell our staff all the time you come in every morning and you’re going to do everything you can to protect the culture you’re trying to build.”
What Golesh has been trying to do, and he seems to feel that this year, his team is making real progress in that regard, is instill his principles, his work ethic, his attention to detail in his players.
When the team starts believing that what they’re doing will help them win football games and Golesh no longer has to convince them of that, then the players hold themselves and their teammates to Golesh’s standard.
And once they’ve accepted the culture, they are able to use it as the foundation for building a winning program.
“It got better from year one to year two,” Golesh said of his ability to inculcate his message to the team. “But for two years the coaches are the ones holding players to the standard.
“This year, I feel like for the first time since I’ve been here the standard is being upheld in the locker room among the guys,” Golesh declared. “You’re seeing that with way less accountability issues off the field. You’re seeing that through the coaching on the sidelines.
“There’s 10 guys that have started a lot of games that are standing on the sidelines and they’re coaching harder than the coaches,” Golesh said. “Like you’re trying to grab a young guy to coach him and somebody else is already coaching him.
“They’re holding the standard within the locker room. “Does that equate to wins on the field? Man, in my history it has. I think it’s your best chance. I think when the standard is held within the locker room by the players it’s going to be harder for those guys to let each other down,” Golesh said.
And it’s a standard that is passed on from one group of players to the next. It’s not like signing a bunch of transfers hoping to get one good year.
“That’s why I’ve said so many times you’re either going to build a team or you’re going to build a program,” Golesh said. “We chose to build a program.”
by Patrick Zier | Apr 5, 2025 |
Denny Hamlin hasn’t lost his edge. He’s older now, 44, an age when most drivers are sputtering the the end of their careers or have already finished them.
But Hamlin, the oldest regular driver in NASCR’s Cup series, isn’t ready for the rocking chair just yet.
“No,” Hamlin said when asked if he ever thought about how much longer he could go. “I mean I’m probably the king of irrational confidence,” Hamlin continued as reported on NASCAR’s website. “I mean generally speaking, I know that when I’ve got the car to do it I can be the best, so…
“I haven’t felt like I’ve held back the car at any point,” he continued. “Certainly I’m not immune to understanding that Father Time is undefeated, but everything I need to be a good race car driver is still really sharp.
“It (the deterioration of his driving skills) hasn’t happened yet,” Hamlin said. “It will but not yet.”
Throughout his career, Hamlin has been amazingly consistent. He usually doesn’t win a bunch of races but he’ll get you two or three every season. There’ve been a few times when he’s won more than that and a few times when he’s struggled, but he’ll almost always get you two or three.
And that hasn’t changed as he’s entered his 40s, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change this year.
That’s because Hamlin doesn’t just drive with his hands and feet, he uses his head as well. And because he continually studies his profession, Hamlin adapts to change better than most.
“As he’s gotten older, he’s had to ramp up the amount of work he’s done where he may have gotten by earlier without doing that,” new crew chief Chris Gayle commented after Hamlin won at Martinsville.
“I still think he has the drive and determination to win. I think it’s probably no secret,” Gayle continued. “You’ve seen the wins. He wants to get beyond 60 wins (Hamlin now has 55). There’s still goals left for him at this age.
“It’s one thing to say that you want to get there and talk about it, but I’m starting to see the amount of effort he puts in,” Gayle went on. “He’s with us in the simulator at least six or seven hours a week.
“He probably doesn’t have to, some of the other guys don’t. He does it to be part of the team, help grow the process competitively,” Gayle said. “I think that just speaks to where his head’s at at this age.”
NASCAR NOTES: Three most likely winners at Darlington: 1-Kyle Larson, 2-Bubba Wallace, 3-William Byron. Last year’s winners at Darlington: first race – Brad Keselowski. Second race – Chase Briscoe. Top five in first race last year: 1-Keselowski, 2-Ty Gibbs, 3-Josh Berry, 4-Denny Hamlin, 5-Briscoe.
Last week’s OGS Martinsville picks: 1-Larson, 2-Hamlin, 3-Byron. Martinsville winner: Hamlin. OGS season record: 3-2.
OGS Competition Index top 10: 1-Christopher Bell 157, 2-Hamlin 129, 3-Larson 104, 4-Berry 77, 5-Wallace 73, 6-Byron 72, 7-Alex Bowman 48, 8-Chase Elliott 45, 9-Daniel Suarez 41, 10-Tyler Reddick 40.
OGS Competition Index top 10 on short tracks: 1-Hamlin 117, 2-Bell 103, 3-Larson 40, 4-Wallace 30, 5-Elliott 25, 6-Joey Logano 12, 7-Byron 11, 8-Chris Buescher 10, 9-Ryan Preece 5, 10-Berry 4.
