NASCAR sends whopping 10 cars, including Denny Hamlin, to rear for Chicago Street Race

NASCAR has announced which drivers will start from the rear of the field in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 Chicago Street Race. In total, 10 cars will start from the rear.

The nine drivers who will have to work their way to the front at Chicago due to unapproved adjustments are Noah Gragson, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ty Dillon, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman and Katherine Legge. Denny Hamlin will also start from the back because of an engine change.

Those are some heavy hitters, and you’ll notice that all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers are on the list of drivers starting from the rear. But it also includes Hamlin, who had some bad luck strike the day prior.

Hamlin blew his engine out not even half a lap into Saturday’s practice session for Chicago Street Race. Hamlin made it to Turn 4, and then his car gave out. He wasn’t even up to speed in his Toyota Camry quite yet. Still, the bottom of his engine fell out and he spilled oil all over the racetrack, causing a lengthy delay in practice.

Denny Hamlin explains surprising engine failure during Chicago practice

Afterward, Hamlin spoke to Alan Cavanna of TNT Sports. Hamlin was clearly frustrated.

“Yeah, don’t know. I just, uh, I hadn’t even hit the gas yet,” Hamlin said. “Came off Turn 4, just started accelerating and blew the whole bottom out.”

When asked if it was the pre-race process that led to the failure, Hamlin wasn’t ready to point fingers quite yet. But he doesn’t want to have to worry about these things as a driver.

“I just, uh, a lot of things you know, we want to be in control as drivers,” Hamlin said. “We want to be in control of our result. You don’t want to have processes or mechanicals stop you from that. And obviously this is a racetrack that is important to have reps, and we spend hours upon hours prior, practicing and getting ready and all that stuff, and couldn’t even make a pace lap before you blew up.”