Hamlin backs fellow NASCAR star to make Cup Series playoffs

Denny Hamlin has backed a fellow NASCAR star to make the Cup Series playoffs despite a difficult weekend at Daytona.

After last weekend 13 NASCAR drivers have reached the playoffs including: Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, and Harrison Burton.

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With three spots remaining, all is to play for at Darlington Raceway, which will be the last round of the regular season.

Currently there are five winless drivers competing for the coveted final spots: Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace.

Can Bubba Wallace make the NASCAR playoffs?

Wallace remains 21 points behind Buescher for a spot, which he will have to make up at the Southern 500 on Sunday if he wants to make the playoffs.

Burton’s win at Daytona last weekend has hindered his chances and Wallace believes he will have to win on Sunday to make the playoffs, after missing out on multiple victories this season.

However, Wallace has received support from a fellow driver on the grid with Hamlin backing him for the playoffs on his Actions Detrimental podcast.

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“I’m going to believe that he will. We’ve seen the Southern 500, for whatever reason, it has some attrition,” Hamlin said.

“If you look at the results, there’s four or five cars that were running up front that have bad days.

“It can happen to anyone. My last two months with the results, it can happen. I wouldn’t hold out hope against Bubba going out there and just having a great day.

“If he goes out there and he can get top three in each stage and finish in the top three, I think they put a tremendous amount of pressure on others to go out there and not have a bad day.”

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