Denny Hamlin Looking for More Speed and Balance on Sunday at New Hampshire.

RPW Exclusive Column By: Stephen Durham / RPW – LOUDON, NH- It was practice and qualifying day for the NASCAR Cup Series on Saturday for the Mobile 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Multiple playoff drivers struggled in practice and qualifying on Saturday, one being Denny Hamlin where he will roll off 9th.

“Not great. I mean, not terrible, but not great. Need a little bit of speed, Need a little bit of balance. But overall, I feel like, you know, I’m in the ballpark, just speed is the biggest thing that we’ve got to get,” Hamlin explains.

This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series brings a different tire from years past. Goodyear brought the same tire compounds as they had at Richmond back in August. Hamlin says he couldn’t tell a different yet.

“I couldn’t tell much. Again, when we only come to a track once a year, so much changes over the course of that year that it’s hard for me to even remember how my car drove last time I was here,” Hamlin says, “so I just kind of correlate to how does it drive verse to the sim and certainly it’s a little bit different. than what I remember. But the track is unique. It’s flat, it’s got some speed to it. So, you got to have it all right.”

Overall, it was a good day for Hamlin as a car owner, as his part-time driver for 23XI, Corey Heim won the EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“He’s just killing it right now and, you know, obviously moving on. So, yeah, it just, it all depends on how he runs to Phoenix.”