Was Lulu really 'bad luck' for Denny Hamlin? Exploring how the JGR driver’s stats changed after rescuing the dog

Denny Hamlin's stats before the last elimination race indicated bad luck, but with his solid top-5 finish in the Bass Pro Shops Night race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Hamlin secured his spot in the round of 12 and sidelined that notion.

After the Enjoy Illinois 300 race at the World Wide Technology Raceway held in May, Hamlin brought home a rescued dog named Lulu. On his podcast Actions Detrimental, the #11 Toyota driver revealed this news. He shared the complete story of adopting their new dog.

The Joe Gibbs Racing Team driver went home to rest, and his family was walking in a park when a ranger came to them with a puppy in his hands. The ranger mentioned that it was rescued from near the river and they could hold the puppy. Hamlin's family asked to adopt the puppy (Lulu) and took it home.

Little did they know what was going to happen after. Hamlin's performance started to witness a significant drop since its arrival. He was the runner-up at the Enjoy 300 Illinois race, and in the next one at Sonoma Raceway, he was in 38th position due to an engine failure.

The bad luck followed Hamlin, and he was still not even in the top 20 cars. The Florida native even struggled to win his spot in the round of 12 before the Bristol race. Since the arrival of Lulu, Hamlin has only two top-5s and two top-10 finishes in 13 races, with four DNFs.

Before Lulu was part of the Hamlin family, he secured top-5 finishes back to back. He even won at the Dover Motor Speedway and was in the top 5 at Kansas and Darlington Speedways. He was in 6th place in the standings, and after Lulu, fell to 13th on the bubble with other drivers.

After the Bristol race, Denny Hamlin is letting Lulu "stay"

Before the Bristol race, everyone was convinced that Denny Hamlin's dog Lulu was the reason for his downfall. Even the #11 driver jokingly named his dog "bad luck" on his podcast.

"Lulu is bad luck, you can't argue with the records," Hamlin said in the Actions Detrimental podcast. "We're on a five-race skid, after having five top-fives in a row...? I mean we're on a slide, we got to give that damn dog away."

Before the Bristol race, the 43-year-old even put his dog up for adoption on his X account. He captioned the post.

"Lulu is in search of a good home for the remainder of my championship run."

He also shared a clip of him quoting his conversation with his crew chief, Chris Gabehart. He highlighted that Gabehart doesn't believe "in luck a whole lot," but he still wants to "explore removing" Lulu for one week and wants to see the results.

However, things took a sudden turn in Bristol for Hamlin, and he finished in fourth place, earning more than enough points to keep him in the round of 12. After the race, the Joe Gibbs racing driver posted a hilarious post on his X account. He reposted his adoption tweet and shared, "She (Lulu) can stay for now."

Now the Florida native is all set for his upcoming races and aims to win them with his new strategy. He is now in sixth position in the playoff table with seven buffer points.