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Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner.

 As many of the people that read and see my blogs know, I am a huge fan of sports. Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, you name it. Keeping up with and watching both college and professional sports has been my hobby for as long back as I can remember. However, I feel like I am a fan of a not so popular sport and that is NASCAR, which stands for the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. 

I have been a NASCAR fan for about fifteen years now. My favorite driver has been Denny Hamlin throughout this time. Denny drives the number eleven car and his sponsor has always been FedEx. Denny is both a team owner and a driver. He and Michael Jordan are team owners of 23XI racing, 23 for Jordan and XI for Hamlin as his number is eleven. Denny drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, a different team, and has driven for them for his entire career.

There can be anywhere from 36 to 43 drivers each week fighting for the win. The odds of your favorite driver winning the race are already little to none. Each season there are 36 races and the best drivers average around four to six wins per year. Denny won eight races in 2010, six in 2019, and seven in 2020. In 2021 and 2022 he won two races each. The wins are becoming harder and harder so when they do happen, you really have to enjoy it like it's going to be the last one.

After winning Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway, Denny has 49 career wins, which is 15th all-time. This win is his first win of the 2023 season and his 4th career win at Kansas, which is the most in track history. There truly is no feeling quite like watching your favorite sports team, or in this case, race car driver, win the race. 

Denny won the race, yes, but not without a fight against Kyle Larson. On the last lap, Larson was battling a loose race car, which means the back end was wanting to come around. His car looked sketchy and really twitchy. Larson is one of the best drivers in the series, so if any driver can handle a car like that it's him. However, going into turns one and two, he got into the wall and Denny was as close as he could possibly be without touching him. He was this close in an attempt to side draft and gain momentum down the backstretch and into turns three and four. Instead, Larson came off the wall off turn two and as Denny was going to side draft, they made contact and Larson went right back into the wall. Denny snuck by and took the checkered flag. Race fans and many spectators believe Hamlin deliberately wrecked him for the win. However, many others say, believe, and agree that Denny raced the right way and shouldn't have given Larson an inch as it was the last lap and ultimately two hungry guys looking for a win that only one guy can have. 

After he was done doing his celebratory burnout, he got out of his car and the fans booed him. This wasn't much out of the ordinary as Denny is hated by nearly everyone. Since he and Michael Jordan formed to start a race team in 2021, Denny has one win as a driver and two wins as an owner in five starts at Kansas Speedway.




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  1. Ryan MinottMay 10, 2023 at 2:41 PM

    Great post Cade! I have learned a ton about all different kinds of sports through your blog and I really enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete

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