Denny Hamlin has been in sublime form this season and has back-to-back wins in Nashville and Michigan, putting him in a firm position as he hunts down Tyler Reddick on the championship leaderboard. 

Hamlin’s form may yet be extended to Pocono, where his record is the winningest driver with 7 wins and 17 top-five finishes. Hamlin’s last victory came in 2023, and he will be looking to add an eighth victory at Pocono Raceway.

But it’s the tracks that come thereafter that Hamlin will be worried about. Sonoma and the Chicago Street Circuit are next. Hamlin hasn’t had the best record on road courses, but King Richard Petty felt that fortune may change. 

Speaking on his podcast, King Richard said, “The way things are falling for him, I’m not going to bet anything against him.” Petty was in conversation with Dale Inman, and the legends discussed the upcoming races. 

Petty said, “The 11s been really catching up on the points and stuff. But now, after they get through with Pocono, we’re going to go a couple of road races so that 11 car, really, so far, he’s not been that good on road courses."

Despite Hamlin’s track record at road courses, Petty was adamant that the form Hamlin has been showing recently, driving all the way from the back of the pack, not just in Michigan but also in Nashville, shows the consistency and momentum Hamlin has on his side. 

Road courses are where Hamlin has struggled, and it’s been the course on which Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen has the upper hand in terms of skill and road course mastery. 

SVG has 7 NASCAR wins, all at road courses. Hamlin, on the other hand, has a solitary win in Watkins Glen back in 2016. If Hamlin is to win, it will have to be a mammoth job to beat SVG and stay ahead of him. 

The SVG Road Course Threat

Hamlin may be in a rich vein of form, but SVG may end up matching Hamlin's 2026 win tally if he takes the wins at Sonoma and Chicago Street Circuit back-to-back. 

SVG comes from a supercar background, and road courses are his bread and butter. Finding time on corners by braking later than everyone else and getting on the throttle before anyone else has become the basis of his dominance on road courses. 

SVG already boasts the strongest win percentage of over 33 percent for wins at road courses. The Kiwi driving Trackhouse '97 is on a mission to be known as the undisputed greatest road course driver in the sport. 

Statistically, he is two wins away from matching Jeff Gordon’s tally of 9 road course wins. Heading into Sonoma, he hopes to make it the third track where he has multiple race wins. 

He already has two at Chicago and will look to make it a third at the street circuit, where he made his Cup debut back in 2023. 

SVG added a second Watkins Glen victory to his resume this year with a mammoth drive. He drove from 26th to 1st in 18 laps, cutting down a 29-second lead and winning comfortably after a late pit call.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Ankita Yadav