LAS VEGAS, Nev: Denny Hamlin scored his 16th top -10 finish of the season in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, but the race was anything but perfect for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Hamlin entered the opening race in the Round of 8 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs hoping to produce his fourth win of the 2024 season, but his fall visit to Sin City was anything but memorable.
A strong qualifying effort worked to Hamlin’s advantage during Stage 1 of Sunday’s race. Still, the day began to unravel for the No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry from the on-set of his first visit to pit road under green where Hamlin pit crew had a slow stop, costing him at least seven spots on the track.
Throughout Stage 1, Hamlin managed to fight back to finish 11th at the end of the stage.
When the leaders came to pit road, Hamlin stayed out, hoping that clean air would work to his advantage and keep his car in the mix despite having several laps on his tires.
Unfortunately, the call didn’t work. Hamlin not only lost the lead at the start of Stage 2, but his car plummeted through the field due to a lack of grip and balance.
Things didn’t get much better on pit road for Hamlin after making a stop during Stage 2; Hamlin had to back up after the team felt they left a tire potentially loose, with Hamlin losing valuable track position and forcing another unnecessary recovery.
The miscues not only took Hamlin out of the hunt for crucial stage points in the penultimate round of the NASCAR Playoffs, but dirty air and bad track position hindered his ability to fight through the field aggressively.
Stage 3 went a little better with Hamlin able to quietly crawl back inside the top-20 and eventually land back inside the top-15, Hamlin’s team in the interest of getting as many points as possible made a strategic decision to join Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez as the three vehicles who elected not to pit during the third and final stage, stretching not only their fuel tanks but the grip on their tires.
With the strategy, Hamlin was able to climb to a race-high third, but as the laps ticked away, his competition from behind on fresher rubber was able to reel in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota – dropping Hamlin to eighth at the checkered flag.
“Not a clean day. That certainly sums it up,” said Hamlin after the race. “You’ll have that. We did the best we could to get the best finish.”
Hamlin credited crew chief Chris Gabehart for continuing to roll the dice with various strategies to keep the No. 11 in the hunt.
“I thought Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) did a great job to get some sort of finish,” added Hamlin. “Once we lost the track position early, he was doing the best he could to try to get it back through strategy, and then it goes long there, and we fall to the back. Just part of it.”
The top-10 finish leaves Hamlin unofficially fifth in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, 27 points in the arrears to fourth-place championship contender William Bryon with Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on deck before the Championship 4 race at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway on November 10, 2024.
Heading to South Florida next weekend, Hamlin knows his team lacks the strength it showcased earlier this season and is not executing its best on pit road and on the track.
With just two races remaining to set the Championship 4, Hamlin knows what his team needs to work on and Homestead will present another opportunity to try again.
“I don’t know where we are at, but certainly, we are not running quite as strong as we were earlier in the year, and we are definitely not as clean, execution wise, as we were,” explained Hamlin. “We will just have to clean it up and go to Homestead and try to win it.”
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
