Denny Hamlin explains why he was ‘fortunate’ to blow a tire late in Stage 1 at Bristol

Denny Hamlin believes blowing a tire in Stage 1 during NASCAR’s trip to Bristol last weekend actually helped him win the race in the end.

During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast following his Food City 500 victory, Hamlin explained how he knew when his tires were getting worn down too much, elaborating on the signal the car would give to the driver during the race.

“I didn’t know whether the drivers were just trashing it or not,” Hamlin explained. “I mean, this could go one of two ways, right? You got the Indy debacle from many, many years ago, where the tough part about that is, the tires blew out. Like, there was no warning. The difference today was, that you had a warning.

“If they blew out, you did not heed to the warning that they were about to blow out. … Your car would just drop grip, dramatically.”

Evidently, that’s something Hamlin experienced at the end of Stage 1, and it’s how the No. 11 wheelman was able to control his car better than anyone else during the trip to Tennessee.

“I was very fortunate to blow a tire in the first stage,” Hamlin added. “At the very end. I was leading with six to go in the first stage. I finished P15. That is crazy. So what happened is, with six to go, all the sudden my car was like, ‘Holy s—,’ the right rear is falling off. Like it was, just I had no grip at all. So I was going into the corner just wrecking. Just spinning out. Well, there’s six to go left in the stage, so I need to limp it around. I tried to limp it, and I found that I really got two more laps out of the car, and then that blew.

“So that’s where I think I was very fortunate to understand, ‘Okay, that’s my gas light.’ That’s in the car that, ‘Hey, you’re getting low on fuel.’ When I noticed my car, the ‘light swhitch.’ I think Kevin Harvick killed it today. I rewatched the race as quick as I could. He killed it in explaining the light switch going off. And it was. It was like, you had grip and then all of a sudden, when your tires had chords, nothing. You had nothing. You had to just slow way, way down, to not wreck. So if there were blown tires, it’s because you ignored the warning that it was giving you.”

Alas, that’s the veteran instinct Denny Hamlin put to good use at Bristol, and it led to his first win of the season. There’s certainly more where that came from as we move forward in the NASCAR Cup Series campaign.