Sunday Race Info
Race: YellaWood 500
Date/Time: Sunday, Oct. 2 / 2 p.m. ET
Distance: 188 laps / 500.08 miles
Track Length: 2.66 miles
Express Notes
Press Kit: Download the 2022 FedEx Racing press materials at www.fedexracing.com/presskit, including bios for Denny Hamlin, Chris Gabehart and Joe Gibbs Racing leadership, program highlights and statistics.
Texas Recap: Hamlin earned his fourth consecutive top-10 finish with a 10th-place result in last weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway. After starting eighth, he quickly moved into the top five and found his way to second by the end of stage one. The FedEx driver finished 11th in stage two after varying strategies shuffled the running order. Hamlin was back up to second during the final stage before being spun out during a caution on lap 268. NASCAR deemed Hamlin did not maintain his momentum and dropped him to 14th. Following a pit stop under that caution, Hamlin restarted 22nd with 58 laps remaining and made his way back up to 10th by the time the checkered flag waved.
Talladega Notes: Hamlin is a two-time winner at Talladega Superspeedway with victories in May 2014 and October 2020. The FedEx Racing driver has finished seventh or better in four of the past six Talladega races dating back to October 2019 and he has led laps in the past five races at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Earlier this season, Hamlin was running in the top 10 before having to pit for fuel with only three laps remaining and ultimately ended the day with an 18th-place finish.
Hamlin Statistics
Track: Talladega Superspeedway
Races: 33
Wins: 2
Poles: 0
Top-5: 9
Top-10: 14
Laps Led: 404
Avg. Start: 15.6
Avg. Finish: 16.9
Hamlin Conversation – Talladega
How do you approach racing at Talladega?
“It’s really tough because you can’t predict when a wreck is going to happen. As a driver, you start to feel the intensity of the pack picking up and you start to see people making aggressive moves. You just have to make a judgement call on whether you want to be a part of it at that time. What’s difficult about the Next Gen car is that you can’t go from the back of the pack to the front like you used to be able to. It’s pretty much a two-lane road and you have to pick one lane or the other. No matter what, with these cars having so much drag on them, you can’t get the third lane going. That used to be the avenue to go from the back to the front, so you used to be able to lay back and make your charge whenever you wanted to. Now, you have to try to stay up front and that’s what we’ll try to do, but you ultimately put yourself at risk of getting in a wreck.”
JGR PR
