Denny Hamlin settles for third at Chicagoland after late charge falls short

Denny Hamlin went from nine seconds back of the leader after the final round of green flag pit stops in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland to under three seconds behind with just a few laps to go, but ran out of time and racetrack to chase down Chase Briscoe and have a shot at winning the eero 400. 

Hamlin started from the pole and led 30 laps but scrubbed the wall in the closing laps, which took away any shot the veteran driver had of winning.

Denny Hamlin's diagnosis

"I thought I was in control early on," Hamlin told TNT. "Even though I wasn't leading I felt in control. Got a little lazy on some restarts. Briscoe and Bell got their cars really good at the second half of the race, Byron as well. Just lost the balance in Stage 3. I thought it was going to be really close to get there. I just pushed it too far into the wall there with a few laps to go and had to settle for third."

There's still a major positive for Hamlin after Sunday's race, however. Tyler Reddick finished 36th after his radiator was punctured, which allowed Hamlin to open up his points lead over Reddick to 44 points going into Atlanta on July 12. 

Hamlin's four victories this season rank second in the series behind only Reddick, while he's tied with Reddick for the league lead in top-five finishes with 10.