Denny Hamlin’s car bursts into flames at Texas Motor Speedway

I cannot express how terrible this race day has been for Denny Hamlin. His highlights include missing his pit stop under caution due to miscommunication on the radio. He went down a second time to pit and was penalized for speeding. Then his car decided to turn into the most expensive BBQ smoker in Texas.

Texas is a tough track. It is one that makes drivers frustrated. Today, it wasn’t the track that got Hamlin, but his own car. He said his car was misfiring for three-quarters of a lap and that was about the only warning.

As Hamlin got out of the car, safety crews were working on putting the flames out. It was a great response from those folks, and thankfully, Hamlin got out of the car under his own power and appears to be just fine.

Denny Hamlin has a terrible trip on pit road

So, to put it simply, Denny Hamlin went down pit road twice and got a speeding penalty. That meant a trip to the very back for Hamlin and his team, and now they are stuck in a tough position on the track.

Hamlin was frustrated with his team. He says the botched stop was due to too many people talking on the radio at the same time. When they used the code word “Cowboys,” Hamlin got mixed up. He let his team know what went wrong.

“You can’t call a team that’s the same f***ing name as another …. Never mind,” Hamlin said on the radio.

“You boys were talking over each other, and I heard ‘Cowboys,’ and obviously I looked at my card.”

Just a terrible miscommunication. I guess you could say at least it is early in the race. There is a lot of time for the 11 team to mess around with strategy and get back to the front. No doubt, his job has gotten a lot harder than it needed to be.