The Charlotte Roval had a new look on Sunday thanks to two major changes made to the track. The first was the introduction of a hairpin corner on Turn 7 and the second was the further sharpening of Turn 16. Stock cars are not usually built for racing through tight corners so there was a lot of trepidation among drivers heading into the race. However, things went pretty smoothly.
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According to Denny Hamlin, this was because the drivers looked after each other. There were no crazy aggressive moves at any point during the race. While cars did get spun around in Turn 7, the damage was minimal since drivers gave each other enough space. It certainly wasn’t as chaotic as it was predicted to be.
“I think it was okay,” Hamlin told the press. “The track was just really bumpy and whatnot … I thought the drivers, for the most part, looked after each other a little bit today. There weren’t crazy moves that came in there and wiped out 10 cars. There were still a few but I thought that the Cup drivers raced professionally today.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing star finished P14 and advanced to the Round of 8. However, he still has a tall job to do. He is eight points below the elimination line with three races left to secure a Championship 4 spot. The deficit doesn’t appear big but it ought to be noted that it is seven of the best drivers from this season that he will be competing against.
Hamlin explains the alarming incident with Tyler Reddick
With a little bit of misfortune, things could have easily gone wrong for Hamlin and 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick would have been at fault. On Lap 30, the No. 45 driver inadvertently bumped into Hamlin after Austin Dillon spun in the Turn 7. Hamlin understood that it was just a racing incident but still expressed wariness about his car’s condition.
“It hurt the car, it knocks up a lot of alignment in the rear,” he said. “My steering wheel went from being straight to 3’o clock. So, certainly had a detrimental outcome to my car but certainly, Chris (Gabehart) did a great job with his adjustments to compensate for the handling that bent toe link did.”
Receiving a DNF on Sunday would have been catastrophic for the 43-year-old. He is fighting to win his maiden Cup Series championship and getting eliminated through the actions of a driver whom he employs would have been beyond frustrating.
