Denny Hamlin went for a spin on Lap 53 in Stage 1 during Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hamlin, running sixth at the time, made contact with former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch coming out of Turn 4. His No. 11 Toyota spun through the frontstrech grass, bringing out the third caution of the race.
Hamlin told his team he thought he had cleared Busch, which wasn’t the case.
“I was not too tight when we cycled there,” Hamlin said, via Lee Spencer of Catchfence. “I was edgy… What happened there? I thought I was clear.”
“Negative,” Hamlin’s spotter, Chris Lambert, relayed back to him.
Hamlin didn’t sustain any major damage during the spin, pitting for four tires and fuel before returning to the race. He recovered nicely, restarting 13th for the Stage 2 restart.
Denny Hamlin frustrated with early fuel-saving at Daytona 500: ‘175 mph pace lap’
Hamlin, 43, is coming off a P19 finish in the Daytona 500 on Monday. He was one of 22 cars involved in the “big one” on Lap 192. Hamlin came away frustrated with the save fuel strategy from the bulk of the field at Daytona.
“The intensity was starting to pick up, which I was so excited about, because I couldn’t figure it out. I knew that fuel mileage yes, it always been somewhat of a big deal, but over the past few years of Next Gen racing on super speedways, it’s been a dramatic deal. With the field all compressed into a one-and-a-half second group, you can save enough gas to be the last car in line, and then jump to the first car in line after a pit cycle, as long as you do a good job on entry of the pits, rolling on pit road, stopping and then exiting pit road, and then exiting with a group. You can flip-flop the field,” Hamlin said on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. “We did it during the duels.
“I was in the back of the duels for the most time, saved enough gas and that allowed me to have a good pit stop, I did a good job on and off pit road and that allowed us to then get to the front of the duel. So, everyone’s trying to do it. Then I realized that, ‘Holy s—, these guys are doing it on lap two.’ I’m trying to push. I think I’m on the top line, and I’m pushing the s— out of whoever was in front of me. I think it was maybe [Austin] Cindric or somebody. I’m like, ‘What the hell? Why aren’t these guys going?’ Like, push the guy in front of you now.
“When I’m trying to push someone, that’s me whispering in the competitor’s ear in front of me, go hit the guy in front of you now. Go push him. Like I’m trying to keep that line moving. But I just kept wondering, ‘Why am I running into him so hard?’ I’m pushing them down the straight-away and it feels like they’re almost hitting the breaks.”
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