Denny Hamlin explains his tire strategy, late green flag pit stop in Food City 500 at Bristol

Denny Hamlin was feeling himself on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, and he was rewarded with a trip to Victory Lane during the Food City 500.

During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin elaborated on why he was able to navigate tire trouble better than some other wheelmen, and how it contributed to a win for his team.

“I was able to go a longer distance than others,” Hamlin said, regarding his tire management. “I’ve managed my tires to a certain degree. I knew that we had X amount of laps in the race. If I divide that into two, how long do I need to go on tires? I managed it off of that. When I saw others really struggling much quicker than what I was, and I still was maintaining pace, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a good thing. That will allow me to go longer, to then shorten up my last run.’ That way I can be more aggressive in the last run. But I went all the way until my right front had no rubber left on it. And I said, ‘I have to pit,’ and he says, ‘Okay, see you in a minute.’ So, I mean, that’s pretty much how it went.

“I made sure that we pitted, and didn’t roll around the racetrack half speed for three laps. Once we had one corner where we’re all off speed, we just pitted right away. But we did that because others had already started pitting. The reason that others — you know, these drivers and these teams, they don’t want to stay out there running quarter speed, you know, 20 second laps. But they don’t want to pit, and then a caution come out for someone else who stays out. So everyone’s trying not to be the first to pit road. They’re just like, ‘Okay, somebody please blow a tire, so we can salvage this, and I don’t have to come to pit road and lose two laps.’ So everyone is actually probably pretty happy that that green flag cycle actually happened.”

Moreover, Hamlin was surprised by the green-flag run where he was able to pace the field and end up with a victory, and he made sure to shout NASCAR out for keeping the yellow flag away from the track.

“Very. Because dodging cars out there, it was crazy,” Hamlin said, asked if he was surprised about the long green-flag run. “But NASCAR was, awesome job letting the race go. There was no there was no need for caution.

“There was — yes, there were slow cars up at the wall, but there was no reason to throw a caution, and they didn’t. It led to a great finish of you know, between us and the No. 19, of who’s going to last here.”