While the NASCAR Xfinity Series race as a whole was good, Denny Hamlin was a little disappointed with the way things ended. He isn’t wrong, either. Everyone seemed to forget how to race at Talladega on the last two laps of the Ag-Pro 300.
Denny Hamlin is one of the best superspeedway racers in NASCAR. He has three Daytona 500 victories, and they were all hard-earned. A lot is said about putting the pedal to the floor and turning left at these tracks. But there is more to it than that.
Drivers who truly understand these massive race tracks know how to manipulate the draft. They can almost see the air the way a sailor might see it coming across the water, adjusting their sails accordingly.
That nuance and skill were lacking on the final Green White Checkered of the Xfinity Series race.
“Xfinity race, I watched it and it was a good race, it definitely was a good race,” Hamlin said on Actions Detrimental. “When I was looking at the top-10 there, just to kind of fast forward to what really matters at the very end. … So then I’m watching, I look at the names in the top-10 going into that Green White Checkered and I’m like ‘Oh man what in the world is going to happen here?’
“It was better than the ARCA race but also so frustrating at the same time because some of these drivers are so inexperienced and doesn’t quite know that to go forward you must use another car. I’m watching these guys and girls, they’re running and instead of pushing whoever they get a huge run on they try to pass and it just destroys their run, they go nowhere and Jesse Love has the easiest victory and first victory in the Xfinity Series for him. So, this is one he got back for Atlanta.”
Denny Hamlin knows how to handle these moments. Superspeedways are not about drag racing around an oval. Drivers who understand the draft use it to their advantage. Riley Herbst made a poor decision at the end of the race.
Instead of pushing Hailie Deegan ahead of him, Herbst left her out to dry. It caused Deegan to drop from a top-4 spot back to P12 by the end of the race. Herbst himself was P2 and had no chance of catching Jesse Love with how he raced at the end.
“[Riley Herbst] needs to just, he needs to just when he comes up to her, just push her, just push her,” Hamlin explained. “Because that keeps his momentum going. It gains her momentum, you’re using her to keep advancing your position.”
It isn’t like Herbst doesn’t understand. In fact, he is one of the best superspeedway races in the Xfinity Series. However, the driving on Saturday did not show that skill. Hamlin explained how Herbst should have played it out.
“He probably should push her to where then she gets beside, she probably would have been up beside Jesse Love, or whoever it was I think she was probably third or fourth something like that. So you use her to advance yourself to the next group of cars and then the next group of cars. It’s not all Riley, I’m saying the whole top-10 was just so disorganized that it created kind of an easy win for Jesse Love because he never had to defend anything because they were all fighting amongst themselves.”
Denny Hamlin makes a great point. Riley Herbst wasn’t the only one to blame. However, Herbst had a Ford teammate right in front of him and did nothing. In fact, he did worse than nothing. He left Deegan out to dry.
Anthony Alfredo made a similar move. No one knew who they wanted to work with. So, Jesse Love went on to claim his first career win with no real challenge at the end.
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