Today Denny Hamlin started on the pole and looked like he had a potential winning car. Then the NASCAR veteran lost control late at Phoenix. Hamlin almost made it back to the top-10 by the time the checkered flag waved.
Being the pole-sitter, Hamlin had the first pit box, a straight shot to winning the battle on pit road all day. He started Stage 3 up front next to Tyler Reddick. Fighting hard with his 23XI Racing driver, Hamlin slipped up.
With how strong Reddick was, Hamlin needed to be aggressive. Turns out, he was too aggressive and his car couldn’t hold onto the line.
“Just felt like there was one or two cars, the 20 at times, the 45 at times. The 20 really probably had the best car, best driver all day,” Hamlin said to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports after the race. “The 45 was right there and then kinda us. Unfortunately, just the restart I spun out and that was it had to go to the back with 100 to go and that was all we had.”
When it came down to it, Hamlin owned up to his mistake.
“Yeah I got beat on a few restarts by the 45 on the high side so I decided to try to keep pushing the entry as much as I could and just couldn’t hold my line there.”
Christopher Bell went on to win the Shriners Children’s 500 in the end. He drove away from the field late and left no doubt.
Denny Hamlin had speed, late mistake cost him
So far this season, Denny Hamlin has finished inside the top-20 in every race. His first top-10 finish of the season, and only so far, was at Las Vegas last week. That P8 finish is just a few spots better than Hamlin’s P11 effort today.
Good news, Toyota and JGR showed a ton of speed on NASCAR’s championship track. Bad news, he just couldn’t keep his car straight late in this race when it mattered most. However, the first taste of short track racing went very well for Toyota as a whole.
Moving onto Bristol, Hamlin won there in the fall night race last season, this should be a move in the positive direction. Hamlin has had a slow start, but he now has a pole award and a little momentum.
Understandably, Denny Hamlin was disappointed after today’s race. He probably should have finished in the top-5 if not better. He likely wouldn’t have been able to keep up with Bell in the end, but it could have been a better result all around. Hamlin sits 8th overall in the points standings after Phoenix.
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