Denny Hamlin spoke on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast about the sequence of events that took his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota out of contention — and buried him further in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
Hamlin finished 16th in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 after a spin mired him in traffic with damage. But also a pit-road misplay — in which Hamlin came for service rather than staying out and trapping Kyle Larson a lap down — allowed the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver to extend his series lead by fighting back to second place, earning a record fifth-straight top-five finish to open the postseason.
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“Had I known that Larson was a lap down and he would have got his lap back by me pitting, I would have never turned down pit road. I don’t care what the crew chief says. I would have never turned down pit road,” Hamlin said on his podcast, posted Tuesday night. “I think if you had time to think about it and all the things, I think there’s no question that we do something different next time around.
“We took our eye off the ball for just a brief period of time, and then I took my eye off the ball at the end of that stage.”
Hamlin fired to the lead on Lap 1 after winning Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Award, pacing the first 34 laps before stopping for four tires and fuel under green. Kyle Larson, who entered Las Vegas with a 26-point advantage over Hamlin atop the standings, started sixth but plummeted eight spots during the opening stint of the 267-lapper, necessitating a lengthy green-flag stop for major adjustments. Larson spent 26 seconds in his pit stall while the Cliff Daniels-led team worked on the right-front, and once the pit cycle was complete, the defending series champion fell a lap down.
The first caution flew when Zane Smith spun in Turn 4. Hamlin, who had returned to the lead, elected to pit again for right sides only. That decision let Larson take the wave around and return to the lead lap, and he capitalized.
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Because Hamlin was the only lead-lap car ahead of Larson, staying out would have prevented the one-lap-down cars from taking the wave-around. Instead, Larson returned to the lead lap and capitalized with 36 points on the afternoon.
But at that moment in time, Hamlin said he was unaware of Larson’s early handling issues and did not know he was a lap down. He did not place blame on his team, either.
“You got to give my team a break, too, and I got to give my team a break because they are focused on helping me get the fastest car that I can get on that day,” Hamlin said. “They’re focused on ‘what is his feedback, what are the tools we got in the toolbox to make his car as good as we can,’ and that’s what they’re focused on. They’re calling my race, they’re not sitting on the couch listening to the announcers breaking down the 5 car’s race. In the bubble of the race track, it’s really hard to put all that in perspective.”
Hamlin restarted ninth after the caution and drove back to third while eventual winner Chase Briscoe controlled the race. He was admittedly pressing, trying to capitalize on crucial stage points. With three laps left in the frame, Hamlin’s Toyota snapped around in Turns 3 and 4 despite battling a tight condition, coming to rest near the entrance of pit road. Initially, Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle believed the car was undamaged. But on the next restart, Hamlin felt something was significantly wrong with his No. 11 machine on the next restart, and discovered damage to both ends after the race — likely suffered when he slid over the apron.
“At the time, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the car,” Hamlin said. “I heard it that something underneath scraped the bottom as I’m spinning coming down the track, but I realized very quickly once we got back, I knew that it wasn’t just traffic. We had a major problem with the car … It just took all the potential out of the race car out and just never could get it remotely competitive after that.
“I’m not throwing water on anyone, but there was no one that was going to run with me … I know what my car needs to feel like to win. It was definitely a race-winning car.”
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Hamlin crawled back to 11th before the final-stage re-fire, saying he felt the car still had decent long-run pace but struggled in dirty air on restarts. But just before taking the green, his car cut out with a brief fuel-pickup issue, dropping him back outside the top 20. He was not sure why that happened, but the issue did not persist the rest of the race.
Hamlin finished 16th, earning just 22 points and marking his fourth finish of eight or worse in five Chase races. He lost 14 points to Larson as his deficit grew to minus 40, failing to capitalize at the track he had won the previous two Cup races. Vegas marked his first finish outside the top five on a 1.5-mile track since Charlotte Motor Speedway last May.
As the back half of The Chase arrives, the scene shifts to Charlotte this Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — a track that could make or break Hamlin’s hopes of finally lifting the Bill France Cup.