NASCAR Charlotte 2014: Could Denny Hamlin ‘steal’ the championship?

When the Chase for the Sprint Cup began, there was a clear line separating the consensus favorites and the remainder of the 16-driver playoff field.

Among those considered the likeliest to contend for the championship were Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski, and to lesser a degree, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Joey Logano.

The expected, however, hasn’t occurred. Instead of being positioned to challenge for the championship, Johnson, Earnhardt and Keselowski are on the brink of being eliminated from the Chase altogether, and Gordon sits precariously on the bubble, just eight points above the cutoff line.

Although there are still two races remaining in the Contender Round, the reality entering Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (the second of three races in Chase Round 2) is a big name or two will be knocked out of the playoffs following next week’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

That possibility has created hope among those who weren’t expected to be much of a factor in the Chase. Denny Hamlin is one such driver, who in his words, thinks he can now “steal” the championship with Johnson, Earnhardt and Keselowski all besieged by bad luck.

“We would love to see them eliminated because they are our biggest threats going forward,” Hamlin said Friday. “If you had to pick four cars in the field that you have to beat to win (the championship), you would say those four guys are part of your top six guys in the field that you are going to have to beat. If they’re eliminated then you don’t have to beat them.

“Definitely the road to the championship gets much easier when those type of guys are eliminated early.”

Hamlin is also feeling more confident about his chances due to NASCAR’s new playoff system, which caters to a team simply needing to catch lightning in a bottle for a few weeks at a time and not needing week-to-week-consistency.

Thanks to the points being reset every three weeks, a team now can win every third race, struggle in the other two races which make up a round, and still qualify for the yearend championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

This format plays to the strengths of Hamlin’s No. 11 team, which lacked speed and consistency throughout much of the regular season, but has improved its performance in the Chase thanks to Joe Gibbs Racing making steady gains in both horsepower and its aerodynamic package.

“This is not a 10-race Chase anymore, it’s a three-race Chase over and over,” Hamlin said. “From my perspective, and probably the guys that I’m around in points that have not shown the speed that some guys have, it’s a blessing because we have ourselves a great opportunity to move on and race for a championship, where the other guys are probably very frustrated with this because they’ve got multiple wins and have shown speed and things like that, and are behind us in points.

“I think this is what NASCAR wanted, they wanted to reset it and for it always to be close, but when you do that you just open the door up for some of these teams that haven’t shown strength to just get hot at the right moment and come up and almost steal a championship away, and it’s possible.”

Even before the playoffs began Hamlin was optimistic he could factor in the championship. A confidence rooted in the knowledge that some of his best tracks are in the back half of the Chase schedule -- provided, of course, he could avoid elimination through the first two rounds.

If Hamlin can make it past Charlotte and Talladega and move to Round 3, he sees no reason why he couldn’t win the championship.

“I don’t think we’re as slow as we were months ago,” Hamlin said. “I think we continue to get better and better and it shows in our results. We think we have a great opportunity ahead of us, and especially knowing personally what race tracks are ahead of me that they continue to get better and better as far as my history at those race tracks. I’m pretty optimistic.”