Denny Hamlin did not have a satisfying race in Las Vegas on Sunday. He finished eighth but now finds himself 27 points below the Championship 4 elimination line with just two more races left in the round. He could have finished higher up the order had it not been terrible executing on the pit road, which was a result of his own mistakes.
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A green flag pit stop on Lap 33 took him 13.4 seconds due to a series of mistakes and put him nearly five seconds behind Christopher Bell, who was the race leader at the time. The delay was kicked off by Hamlin stopping short of where he was supposed to be in the pit box. These tiny margins often make a huge difference and they sure did at that moment.
He had fallen from fifth to 14th when he came back to the track. Hamlin finished Stage 1 in 11th place but the pit road woes weren’t done yet.
He stopped short in his box again when he went in for tires after Stage 2. His crew failed to tighten his left rear wheel properly and signaled him to take off carelessly. Quick recognition of the mistake made him reverse the car to make sure everything was in order.
Late-race fuel strategy from Chris Gabehart helped salvage a top-10 finish but the driver was understandably frustrated at his crew after the race. However, he took the blame on himself when speaking on Actions Detrimental.
He said, “I missed hitting the sign on that one, but that’s where we had the left rear tire loose wheel. So, it didn’t affect that because they had already run around the other side.”
“It usually messes up the timing on the right, which can affect the left. But it doesn’t affect loose wheels. It affects more, you know, pulls and positioning and bodies. Things like that.”
Likely, he wouldn’t have lost so much time on the road had he stopped the Camry in its intended spot. But, he did defend himself by stating how the pit boxes in Las Vegas are very slick.
The No. 11 team exited Sin City with 29 points in the bag. That’s not a number enough in the Round of 8 and Hamlin knows it. If he fails to remember it, Gabehart would make sure that he understands the gravity of the situation.
The crew chief said after the race, “I’m happy that we were able to salvage an eighth, which is better than we had run for 230 laps. … But it’s not enough in this round.”
The next race will be in Homestead-Miami, a track where Hamlin has excelled in the past. He has conquered the intermediate three times and will hope to do it again this upcoming weekend.
