NASCAR QNA: Denny Hamlin or Mark Martin ... or Junior Johnson? Indy 500 nears for Larson
Denny Hamlin is clearly the best racer without a ring, right?
Let’s focus on the modern-era racers who competed for the championship, won a bunch of races, but never got it done.
After Denny, the pecking order looks like Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Ricky Rudd, Davey Allison and Jeff Burton, with Geoff Bodine possibly cracking that list.
Junior Johnson is the obvious all-timer without a title. But remember, he never ran a full season back when most racers and teams picked their spots, which were usually the spots that paid more than some backwater dirt track with 800 bleacher seats.
THRU THE GEARS Denny Hamlin climbing the NASCAR wins list, how far can he go? Busch, Larson talk Gen-7 blocks, cameras
Same with Fred Lorenzen, Curtis Turner and Jim Paschal — Jim actually ran 45 of 49 races in 1967 … the same year Richard Petty won 27 times!
You still think Kyle Larson is distracted by his Indy 500 duties?
He certainly wasn’t at Dover, and might not be at Kansas, but it’s bound to get tougher with each day and each week.
Indy 500 practice doesn’t start until May 14, two days after Darlington, but you have to assume Kyle is getting a lot of seat time in an IndyCar simulator, which must be a slight culture shock, especially in race mode.
After Darlington comes the All Star Race and Coke 600, on the weekends of Indy qualifying followed by race weekend and the attempted Indy-Charlotte double on May 26.
"It's kind of a tough balance, I think everybody thinks that I should be preparing for Indy every single day, but we're in the middle of our Cup season." Kyle Larson talks his busy #IndyCar and #NASCAR schedule.
Full video: https://t.co/PFu2OgopoJ
📹@stephen_stumpf pic.twitter.com/pnXtBYavCB— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) April 27, 2024
Kurt Busch’s NASCAR results suffered 10 years ago when he did this, but Kyle might indeed be a different breed.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Denny Hamlin wins NASCAR races, not Cups; is Kyle Larson distracted?