Denny Hamlin reacts to critical Ross Chastain pit road mistakes at Charlotte

Denny Hamlin knew that Ross Chastain had an uphill battle to advance in the playoffs after he made two pit road mistakes at Charlotte. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin shared his reaction to the two pit road penalties Chastain suffered on Sunday.

“I don’t think the first one was a mental mistake,” Denny Hamlin began. “I think he was trying to maximize pit road to its nth degree, and then he thought he was going to be able to turn after that. But running pit road speed, there’s not enough room. There’s a wall right there. So, you have to slow down to make that 90-degree left. He’s just trying to get every spot he can, and he realized as soon as he hit the brakes and tried to turn left, it wasn’t turning. That’s why he went straight.”

Hamlin was referring to Ross Chastain not making the hard 90-degree turn back onto the track after leaving pit road at the end of the opening stage. That led to him losing 15 spots, but Chastain battled back to put himself in a position to make a run.

Denny Hamlin said Ross Chastain made a ‘mental mistake’ during second pit road penalty

But when Chastain pitted for the final time with 23 laps remaining, he was caught speeding on pit road and had to serve a drive-through penalty. Hamlin said that Chastain tried to slow down, but “he was already caught at that point.” Hamlin also said that Chastain “made a mental mistake there,” which is something Chastain pointed out after the race.

Despite the penalties, Chastain was ahead of Joey Logano for the final Round of 8 playoff spot during the final lap. But when Hamlin passed Chastain, Logano moved ahead and clinched the spot when the race ended. In a last-second move, Chastain hit Hamlin to move ahead of him, but he spun himself in the process and backed his car across the finish line to earn a P21 finish, which was one spot behind Logano.

“I would restart the whole day,” Chastain said after the race. “Our Busch Light Chevy, Trackhouse Racing, they expect so much more out of me. “It’s heartbreaking for almost 200 employees at Trackhouse, all of our teammates, ECR Engines; everyone that makes this go around. Justin [Marks, team owner] hired me to carry this 1 car to drive it and be a leader, and I completely unraveled our day. Completely unacceptable.”