"I’ve had horrible days here": Denny Hamlin addresses his 30-point buffer heading into ROVAL

Denny Hamlin is heading into the last race of the Round of 12 with a 30-point advantage over the cutline and expressed caution ahead of his race at ROVAL, claiming that he's had 'horrible days' at the track. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran is currently sitting in fourth place on the playoffs standings table, behind Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and William Byron.

But with zero finishes inside the top 5 in the two playoff races at Kansas and Talladega, Hamlin was asked whether a 30-point buffer was enough for the ROVAL. Addressing this question in a press conference on Saturday, Hamlin said:

"If I don’t have a horrible day, yes. But I’ve had horrible days here. I feel better about it than I did with five to go at Talladega, certainly. I think that I just have to do my part in all of this. That starts today and goes on to tomorrow and I just need to do my job to best of my ability, and if so, then we will be fine. If not, we will see how it all stacks up, but 30 points – if you would have asked me before Talladega, would you be alright with 30 points to the good going to the ROVAL, I would have said yes," he said [at 5:10].

It's worth mentioning that in his 6 starts at the ROVAL, Denny Hamlin has only one finish inside the top 5, which came in October 2021. Apart from that, he has four finishes inside the top 20 and one 37th-place finish, which came in his most recent outing at the racetrack.

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Denny Hamlin claims qualifying would be a big factor in his race strategy at the ROVAL

During the media interaction on Saturday, Denny Hamlin was asked if the qualifying results influenced his strategy for the race. The 43-year-old affirmed the importance of his starting position playing a major role in the results and how he and his team would approach the race.

But he also mentioned that a lot of it depends on the drivers ahead of him in the qualifying and what their 'agenda' is.

"I probably won’t know what Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) will do coming out of the back chicane, and we are coming to two to go, and does he call me to pit road or not – a lot of that is waiting and seeing what does the competition does infront of you, how many points can you get, and so yes. Today is the start of your strategy, and it can alter based on what we do today," Hamlin claimed [at 8:05].

For the race on Sunday, the last race in the Round of 12, Denny Hamlin qualified in 18th spot. So far this season, his results at road courses have been less than ideal with a 23rd-place finish at Watkins Glen, 30th at Chicago, 38th at Sonoma, and a 14th-place finish at COTA.

With that said it'll be interesting to see how the JGR veteran tackles the road course as he hunts for his first win since Dover.