Denny Hamlin’s Martinsville weekend began on a high note, a top-five qualifying effort and a P2 finish in practice behind Chase Elliott, but by race day, his No. 11 Toyota had lost its bite. Both Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Chase Briscoe, saw their playoff runs hit a block when engine issues forced them behind the wall during the final stage of Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway.
Briscoe was the first to falter, coasting down the frontstretch on Lap 296 from 14th place. Less than 40 laps later, smoke poured from Hamlin’s car while he was running second. Riley Herbst also suffered a similar engine failure in the No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota.
Fortunately for Hamlin and Briscoe, both drivers had already locked themselves into the Championship 4, giving their crews a week to sort out the issues before Phoenix.
Hamlin, visibly dejected after climbing from his car, recounted the abrupt failure. “I felt like we were in a good spot there, where we just started to close back in on (Ryan) Blaney. We got the track position we needed. I didn’t feel anything; it was running, and then it was just no noises, no sounds, no indication. I decelerated into Turn 1, and it just shut off. That was it. We’ll work on it, I guess, and try to get them next week.”
He admitted the concern is real, but remains focused on the bigger picture. “I’m obviously concerned (about the mechanical problems), but there’s obviously nothing I can do about it. We’ll live with it, and hopefully we’ll get back next week, and we are just going to have to see how it goes. I’m confident in the speed that we’ll have next week. I’m really confident in what this team is going to bring next week, and we’ll bring our best; hopefully, it lasts.”
Hamlin reiterated that the failure came without warning, stating how everything was fine, and then it just lost power in Turn 1, no noises, nothing, just silence because it wasn’t running. Still, he found a silver lining in Goodyear’s left-side tire experiment, saying the compound forced drivers to manage wear differently, and as the track began to take rubber, it produced competitive racing.
Mechanical problems, however, have dogged Hamlin throughout this postseason. Just one race ago at Talladega, he battled a throttle issue caused by debris that forced an extended pit stop and dropped him to 24th. That mishap didn’t derail his playoff campaign thanks to his Las Vegas win that sealed his Phoenix berth, but it marked his second reliability issue of the playoffs.
Earlier at Kansas, Hamlin lost by mere inches to Chase Elliott after controversially pinching his own 23XI Racing driver, Bubba Wallace, into the wall — a move that cost him speed, compounded by a power-steering failure and a sluggish pit stop.
It has been a haunting pattern. Last year, a stuck throttle in Martinsville practice cost him a shot at the Championship 4. Now, with Phoenix on the horizon, the #11 JGR driver knows the margin for error has all but evaporated, and his title hopes depend on the reliability of what’s under the hood.
