Denny Hamlin’s summer stretch has been a tale of two halves.
After a feast-or-famine 10-race stint to open the year, Hamlin won his third race of the season at Dover on April 28 — a result that would be the first of five consecutive top-five efforts for Hamlin and the No. 11 team.
A fifth-place finish in St. Louis marked the fourth of Hamlin’s consecutive top-five finishes. And with it, the veteran driver took the Cup Series points lead, holding it after a runner-up effort the following week in St. Louis…