Final Practice Speeds | First Practice Speeds
Denny Hamlin was able improve his lap times in the final practice for Saturday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway after the team went to work on his No. 11 Toyota following the opening session trying to diagnose an issue.
Hamlin was 29th fastest in the morning session after completing 30 laps.
“It won’t make the corner without sliding up the racetrack, even on new tires,” Hamlin told MRN before taking part in the final session. “My guess it’s something in the front geometry or the car build. Something is out of sorts.
“We are trying to get all the parts and pieces like our teammates that we can but we just don’t have time. We can only put a few things in because the two practices are so close to each other and then we have to be in the tech line 15 minutes after.”
The team was able to make some gains as Hamlin went out with 24 minutes remaining in the final session and moved into the top 10. He later went out and made a mock-qualifying run with 7 minutes left and wound up eighth overall. Hamlin was also second on the best 10 consecutive lap average chart in final practice, but is still not satisfied with the feel of the car.
“I don’t think we got them worked out,” Hamlin said. “I think that we have some issues for sure. We’re trying to work them out. Obviously, it’s super frustrating from my standpoint and it is for them, too. They don’t want to have to completely rebuild a car while they are at a race track.
“It could be a really good race for us, it can also be really bad. I’m really not sure how it’s all going to turn out. I’m not sure with qualifying if it will be indicative of anything we have going on, but we’ll see how it all pans out. We’ll try everything we can to make the right decisions for tomorrow. We obviously didn’t get a whole lot of track time today.”
Hamlin is coming off a win in his charity race last night at Langley Speedway. He is also a three-time winner at Richmond and has finished sixth or better in the last five races, including a win in the 2016 September race.
“Last night was a great success,” Hamlin said. “We had such a great turnout. They were able to put in temporary grandstands, and that was a good thing, anytime you can fill up a race track like that. Obviously great competition with myself and Kyle (Busch) and some of the other Late Model stars. Great battle all night and had a fun night. Raised some good money for charity, going to continue to want to build that event to be a big one for those guys going forward.”
