Denny Hamlin is predicting a wild Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway after he experienced one of the more chaotic trips to Phoenix Raceway.
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He believes that the mix of increased horsepower and softer tires will lead to increased tire wear and cars that are completely out of control. Which is along the lines of what the veteran drivers have requested.
"Heads up on Darlington," Hamlin said on this week's episode of his "Actions Detrimental" podcast. "You want to see some cars out of control? Here in a few weeks, these cars with essentially little to no underbody — because we're now going to the short track aerodynamic package for Darlington — these cars are out of control.
"We are going to be...I'm predicting four seconds of falloff. It might be more. It's just the cars with the underbody taken off and that simple diffuser, even on new tires, just absolutely out of control. It's going to be a wild card race."
The race at Circuit of the Americas featured the updated package for the 2026 season for road courses and ovals under 1.5 miles in length. It had 750 horsepower and a different aero package. Yet, drivers didn't notice a major difference from the past seasons.
This was not the case at Phoenix Raceway, a 1-mile oval. The race caught drivers by surprise. Their cars were out of control, they burned through tires faster than expected, and many experienced blowouts.
The result was a track record-tying 12 cautions and 23 lead changes. Drivers experienced nearly two seconds of lap time falloff in 30 laps.
Now, Darlington looms. This 1.366-mile oval in South Carolina is a much different beast than Phoenix Raceway. It's older with a rough racing surface that tears through sticker tires. Its unique egg shape tests drivers and teams as they try to find a setup that will work in every turn.
A common sight is a driver slamming into one of the outside walls and racing away with a massive stripe down the side of their stock car. Many earn the Darlington Stripe; the best find a way to get the stripe and maintain their speed while contending for the win.
"I really think the biggest place you'll notice it is Darlington coming up, especially with the aero change there," William Byron said ahead of the Phoenix race.
"Going to the short track package at Darlington, I think, is going to be a big difference, so that'll be probably the first race we run that's like kind of that shock moment of what is the car going to feel like and what do we have to do to adjust."
