'White-knuckle every lap': Denny Hamlin fights through brake issues to finish fifth at Iowa

Brake issues discovered by Denny Hamlin's No. 11 team on Saturday during practice at Iowa Speedway threatened to derail his entire weekend. 

But the NASCAR Cup Series points leader battled for 350 laps and held on for a fifth-place finish that has him leaving Iowa with a 103-point lead over race winner Ty Gibbs with three races left in the regular season.

Denny Hamlin discusses performance at Iowa

"Just had to white-knuckle every lap," a visibly exhausted Hamlin told USA Network. "Obviously not knowing where my car was going to land when I got in the corner. Obviously, you want to have brakes. That was a crazy race to have to do it the whole time without [brakes]. 

"You gotta do what you gotta do. Team did an amazing job. I would take that day 100 out of 100 times. I'd retire at the end of the year if I had to do that every week. Lesson learned from our part. We had to grind away the best we could. Really proud of the effort the team put in today."

Hamlin goes into Richmond on Aug. 15 with roughly a race-and-a-half lead on Gibbs for the No. 1 seed in the Chase and could clinch it if he finishes well and Gibbs runs into misfortune. Hamlin is a five-time Richmond winner.