Denny Hamlin’s pit stop nightmares made an unwelcome reappearance on Sunday, putting his chances for the Championship 4 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in jeopardy.
After a less-than-stellar performance that left him without stage points at the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he finished eighth, Hamlin‘s road to the Championship 4 got rougher. Two critical setbacks in the pit lane took a heavy toll, pushing him into a tricky spot in the playoff standings. He now stares at a daunting 27-point deficit behind fourth-place contender William Byron with only two more races before the cut to four.
A protracted 13.4-second green-flag stop due to a string of errors extended his pit time nearly five seconds more than then-leader Christopher Bell. However, the real kicker was a catastrophic error post-Stage 2 when, sitting in 19th place following a misread on strategy, Hamlin went in for tires but stopped prematurely and experienced a loose rear wheel – necessitating a near-impossible comeback.
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Hamlin, desperate for his first championship title, rallied hard but couldn’t shake off the disappointment from Joe Gibbs Racing’s day, reminiscent of Kansas last month when he cited “horrible” mistakes on pit road as the culprits for his loss.
“Yeah, just not a clean day,” Hamlin admitted. “That certainly kind of sums it up. You’ll have that. We’ll just do the best we can to get the best finish.
“I thought [crew chief] Chris [Gabehart] did a great job trying to get some sort of finish. Once we lost the track position early, he was doing everything he could to try to get it back through some alternate strategy. It goes long there, we fall back to the back. Just part of it.”
Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota finished in eighth place (
Getty)
Gabehart was under no illusions after a race that dealt a severe blow to Hamlin’s championship aspirations. He confessed to NASCAR.com that performances like this simply won’t suffice for a team pursuing the sport’s ultimate accolade.
“In the Round of 8, that’s not enough points,” Gabehart stated. “I mean, eighth with no stage points is not going to get it done, certainly considering, the setback we had for ourselves there late in the season with a huge penalty. So not the day we hoped for. You’ve just got to execute cleaner than that in the Round of 8. We’re just not executing on pit road.”
Joey Logano, who only made the Round of 8 due to a disqualification for Alex Bowman last week, secured his spot in the Championship 4 with an impressive victory in Sin City, skillfully managing his fuel to take the checkered flag. Bell, Kyle Larson and William Byron occupy the remaining places in the top four with two races left before the finale.
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