NASCAR Cup Series

Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson sharing a plane, duking it out for regular-season title

Published Aug. 19, 2021 1:52 p.m. ET

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By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer 

When Kyle Larson visited with the media Sunday morning after getting about four hours of sleep following his victory in the prestigious sprint-car Knoxville Nationals, he shared with a laugh that the plane worked fine from Iowa to Indianapolis.

No one thought the plane wouldn’t be fine, but it was a piece of conversation because of whose plane Larson used to get back and forth from Indianapolis to Iowa.

The plane belonged to Denny Hamlin. 

Yes, that Denny Hamlin, the driver Larson is battling for the regular-season NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Hamlin tweeted earlier in the week that he hoped Larson’s plane didn’t have trouble, leaving out the part about Larson using his plane as part of the joke.

No one thought Hamlin would do anything to the plane, but for those who don’t know the camaraderie between Larson and Hamlin, it could've seemed a little strange. 

Why would Hamlin, who really could use the extra playoff points awarded to the regular-season champion, help his main rival for those points get a better night’s sleep the night before the race? Why would he make it any easier on him?

"When I was younger, my racing career was done, and a guy that was standing behind me in a sign-in line [at the local track] offered to pay for me to go the next week because we couldn’t afford it," Hamlin said. 

"He said, ‘If you’re not there, we didn’t beat the best.’ So I’d rather him be here than not."

Hamlin and Larson are both represented by Prosport Management, and they have been friends for several years. While there is an age gap – Hamlin is 40 years old, Larson is 29 – both drivers share a love of golf and appear to enjoy this battle.

Larson seemed amused that his flying on Hamlin’s plane was a topic of conversation and noted that any thought of Hamlin delaying the flight on purpose would be absurd.

"We’re friends," Larson said. "I’ve flown on his plane in years past. Maybe I’m not as competitive as I am now in years past. He’s been generous enough to allow me to fly with him a lot of times. 

"I’m very thankful for it. His pilots are great people. I’m thankful I can use his plane. There are other planes there – it’s easier to ask him because he’s a close friend."

With two races left in the regular season, Larson has the upper hand on his friend, especially after Hamlin was turned while leading with just more than a lap remaining Sunday at Indianapolis. The two had entered that race tied in the standings with three races remaining.

Hamlin’s sour ending at Indy turned into a 23rd-place finish, and he now sits 22 points behind Larson. With 60 points maximum available per race, that margin certainly isn’t insurmountable, but Larson likely will need to have a problem for Hamlin to overcome the deficit.

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The winner of the regular-season title earns 15 playoff points, which are added to a driver's total when the points are reset for the first three playoff rounds. With his five race wins and 12 stage wins, Larson already has 37 playoff points.

The regular-season runner-up earns 10 playoff points. Hamlin hasn’t won a race this year and has five playoff points for his five stage wins, so earning 15 playoff points instead of 10 could be huge for him. The regular-season championship could have been an even bigger deal, as the regular-season champion is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.

Hamlin caught a little bit of a break when AJ Allmendinger, an Xfinity driver, won Sunday, meaning that there will be at least one spot open for a winless driver in the 16-driver playoff field – and Hamlin is guaranteed to be the first driver in on points. 

Although he doesn’t have a victory, Hamlin has 12 top-5 finishes in the 24 races this year. 

"[Not winning] is not for a lack of being competitive," said Hamlin, who won seven races last season. "Of the guys that won a lot of races last year, we are by far the most competitive, and we are in the top-5 more than anyone else.

"We just haven’t had anything break our way yet. Some of it was our fault. Some of it wasn’t our fault. It just hasn’t happened, but we are a competitive team that can win each and every week."

Larson has enjoyed this battle with his friend. Of course, having won five times might be part of that enjoyment. Larson is having a career year in his first season driving for Hendrick Motorsports.

"He ran me really hard at Road America [in July] and put me in a couple bad spots to where I almost ended up in the grass or if I didn't lift, I was going to send him spinning," Larson said after his win earlier this month at Watkins Glen. "So then I knew points was on his mind and trying to hold me back is definitely on his mind.

"It’s fun racing him, and I look forward to the next few weeks and really even into the playoffs. There's still a lot of racing left, and, yeah, it's going to be fun."

The two races left in the regular season are at Michigan and Daytona. Larson has won three times in his career at Michigan, while Hamlin has won twice. Hamlin has three Daytona 500 wins, while Larson has never won a Cup race at Daytona.

"I'm glad there's a fun, little regular-season point battle," Larson said. "I feel like in years past, it's kind of been a blowout come the last race of the points."

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What to watch for

Michigan will be the sign of whether any teams have caught up with Hendrick Motorsports and Larson, as the 2-mile is representative of many of the 1.3-2-mile tracks on the circuit. Look for Joe Gibbs Racing to be the main contender for that, just as it was in Pocono. Larson’s three career wins while in Chip Ganassi Racing equipment make him the favorite as he enters his first race at Michigan while driving for Hendrick Motorsports.

In non-Cup action, the Truck Series playoffs begin Friday at WWT Gateway. John Hunter Nemechek, with five wins, is the favorite. Austin Hill won the last two races of the regular season, but those came on dirt and a road course – and neither of those styles of tracks is on the playoff schedule.

Ben Rhodes also has two wins, but he has not won since February, as those victories were in the first two races. Defending champion Sheldon Creed and Todd Gilliland are the only other playoffs drivers with a win this year.

Among the other five drivers are two veterans (Matt Crafton, who went winless on his way to winning the 2019 title, and Stewart Friesen), two rookies (Carson Hocevar and Chandler Smith) and Zane Smith. 

With only two drivers eliminated in the opening round (Gateway, Darlington, Bristol), it will certainly start getting stressful for the drivers with a second round of Las Vegas, Talladega and Martinsville.

My picks for the final four: Nemechek, Creed, Gilliland and Hill.

Thinking out loud

Going to Michigan for the only trip of the season brings up a frustrating part of the 2020 NASCAR Cup schedule: one trip to Michigan.

Michigan is the home of both Ford and Chevrolet, and it is a sad commentary that NASCAR seems to have lost the passion for two races in an area where manufacturer loyalty is still a thing.

NASCAR can’t just look and say, if people don’t show up for the races, this market loses a race. NASCAR must do more to engage with those who work in the factories, whether that's bringing them out to the race track for a test day or bringing the cars to them more often to get them enthused about their drivers.

Next Up: Next Gen

Goodyear and NASCAR conducted a tire test Wednesday at Bristol Motor Speedway, with Christopher Bell behind the wheel. The two-day test turned into a one-day test because of rain.

Bristol is slated for another test during the fall, with a car from each manufacturer. The manufacturer tests aren’t used to find speed. They use cars with heavy sensors on them to gather data for their simulation programs.

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They Said It

"Josh took full advantage of the opportunity he had this year in the No. 8 car. He went out, raced hard and earned every bit of this." – Dale Earnhardt Jr. in naming Josh Berry a full-time driver at JR Motorsports next year

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!

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Bob Pockrass