Denny Hamlin breaks down what he could have done differently on OT restart at Kansas

Denny Hamlin fell short of winning the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas on Sunday, and he knows what he could have done differently. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin revealed the one change he would have made during the overtime restart, which was to start on the top.

“As strong as I know my cars are on mile and a halfs on the top, I absolutely just should just start top no matter what,” Denny Hamlin said. “Let me be the guy on the outside because I’m going to hold more throttle than everyone else is.”

Hamlin added, “The bottom wins. …I think in the last restart, the rules change because people are not content pushing anymore. Everyone’s just going to go for themselves, and that’s where you have to just throw the numbers out.”

There was an overtime restart after Cody Ware spun out on Lap 266. After the overtime restart on Lap 273, Kyle Larson steered to the inside of Hamlin on the bottom row and took the lead. Tyler Reddick then cleared Larson on the outside lane to win his fifth race of the year.

Denny Hamlin reacts to frustrating ending at Kansas

Hamlin finished fourth at Kansas, but it was a frustrating ending for him since he led 131 of the 274 laps. After the race, Hamlin shared his reaction to falling short at Kansas.

“I mean, obviously, it’s not winning,” he said. “It’s Cody Ware, six laps down, wrecking. I don’t know. It just added up. I feel for the same move that the 5 (Larson) got me a couple years ago when I was on the inside. I got to learn from those mistakes that I make, not executing those last few laps.”

Hamlin was then asked if he got into the wall. “Yeah, I had a big run off of turn two. 19 I think probably on four tires there,” he said. “So wasn’t a whole lot of room. I wasn’t going to lift. Yeah, just got in the wall. But it didn’t really affect the finishing position.”

So far this season, Hamlin has won one of the nine races the NASCAR Cup drivers have competed in this year. He also has six top-10 finishes and four finishes in the top five.