For three of the four drivers racing for the NASCAR Cup Series championship this weekend, braggadocio is not inherent to their personalities.
Kyle Larson
William Byron
Chase Briscoe
Sure, Larson is good for what those within the industry call #BluntLarson zingers every now and then but he doesn’t go out of his way to give other teams bulletin board material. Briscoe and Byron are generally understated personality types who simply prefer to speak with their work ethic and performance.
“I feel like we’re pretty normal,” Briscoe said of his interactions with the others this week. “I’m sure Sunday we’re not going to be talking and hanging out. Just how media works. You’re just around ’em a lot.
“I don’t know, I’ve seen it from the fan side. Tony (Stewart) would play head games with the others, and all this stuff, and I just don’t feel like there’s any of that here. Maybe I’m just naïve and easygoing and talking to everybody.”
Then there’s Denny Hamlin, the most braggadocious of them all, who very much isn’t in that mode this weekend either. Maybe he’s just tired. Maybe it’s all the extra work surrounding the antitrust lawsuit the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan has brought against NASCAR.
Perhaps it’s the weight of chasing an elusive championship that has gotten away from him in seven different dramatic ways over the past two decades. He has also admitted that this is the last chance that his father Dennis will have to see him possible earn the crowning achievement.
So, no, there wasn’t any smack talk on Thursday during NASCAR Championship Media Day at Phoenix Raceway.
There were just some kind of casual conversations with drivers who very much appear to be locked in over the task at hand over the next three days.
Christmas plans
Commercial versus private flights
Golf handicaps
… super light fare content
Through it all, Hamlin recognizes that at 44-years-old, the pressure is on him the most.
“Yeah, I would think it would probably be me just simply because of the time left,” Hamlin said. “Is this my last opportunity or not? I think any format change that’s coming that seems like it will be a bigger sample size should be better for me, in general.
“You just never know. You always have to seize the moment, like, right there in front of you. I would certainly probably confirm that the pressure is probably most on me because these guys know they got a long way to go.”
Like Hamlin, Byron and Briscoe are still seeking their first championships, but unlike Hamlin are 27 and 30, respectively. There’s a lot more runway ahead than behind.
“Honestly, I don’t feel like there’s any pressure,” Briscoe said. “That probably sounds weird to say. Nobody really expected us to be here anyway, so…
“Yeah, there’s really no pressure. I feel like there’s more pressure next year with how good this year went, now the expectations are there. This year there was really no expectation for anything outside of maybe winning a race.
“Yeah, not a whole lot of pressure. Like I said, I’m sure Sunday will feel different. Right now, I don’t know, it doesn’t feel any different, if I’m being honest.”
Larson is the only driver here to have won a championship, also coming in the final four format, back in 2020. So no pressure there, either.
“Maybe having a championship before, you know what it feels like,” Larson said. “That already takes some ease or some pressure off of how big this event is, what it could mean to your career.
“Yeah, I’m thankful to have one. Obviously I want two. I think because I do have one already, I don’t overthink the week and the moment and all that. I’m not sure if they overthink it, too. I know how I felt in 2021. I do feel probably different now.”
Byron hasn’t won a championship yet, but this is also the third year in a row that he has come to Phoenix with a chance to get it done.
“When I hear you say that, it’s third straight, it’s really cool,” Byron said. “We should take pride in that as a team honestly because it’s hard to do, especially with this NextGen car. So yeah, it’s exciting. It’s all that our team’s kind of been here and done this before.
“Yeah, I think it just kind of narrows the focus. I think it just kind of makes it clearer. The track hasn’t changed. We’ve been in these positions. It’s very routine.”
So by this point, you reading this get the idea, no one is interested in head games or smack talk. They are just preparing to clock in on Friday for practice day and try to spend as much of this weekend treating this race like another weekend of the 38-week grind.
That’s what got them here.
That’s what will get them there.
“I’m just a lot looser,” Hamlin said. “Certainly, just living this week-to-week. I’ve said it quite a but I’m just trying to count wins. If you try to start the year and say ‘we are going to win the championship,’ it’s really hard to work this sport backwards from the result to the execution of the result.
“I just have been very week-to-week on ‘how do I win the weekend.’ Obviously, winning the most races confirms that’s the right approach. It’s allowed me to be looser with it, not chase points as much or anything like that. Just capitalize on the week that we can win. Had some good results.”
Ditto Larson.
“I wouldn’t say it’s much different than a normal week,” Larson said. “I think we on the 5 team, I can’t speak for them, but for us, I feel like we prepare really good every week. We prepare like every race is the finale.
“I think it doesn’t change when we come to Phoenix. Obviously, there’s more on the line, but I don’t think you want to skew too far from what you’re used to.”
So that was the story of Thursday at Phoenix Raceway.
Hamlin, Briscoe, Byron and Larson are locked-in and they are all working to do their talking on the track come Sunday, where they hope they speak the loudest.
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