With an impressive record at the track and his promising run in the season so far, Denny Hamlin had all eyes on him ahead of the Bristol race as he went for his triple-peat. Hamlin was certainly a fan favorite and was just inches away from his third consecutive win when Kyle Larson clinched the victory with a difference of 2.250 seconds.
After the race, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver heartily praised Larson for his well-deserved win. Along with this, he also broke down what cost him the Bristol win and what he could have done better.
Denny Hamlin’s Day Out at Bristol
In his No. 11 Camry XSE, Hamlin started at the No. 4 position and had an impressive run throughout the race. He looked strong and came close to taking the lead a handful of times but was eventually unable to do so. However, he managed to stay among the top five spots for pretty much the entire race.
Hamlin was the runner-up in the First Stage and finished in the fifth position in Stage 2. In the latter part of the race, it seemed like he could take a pass at Larson and move to the front. However, Larson, with his versatility and skill, bested Hamlin and forbade him from getting his hat trick.
Denny Hamlin Breaking Down His Performance
Right after the race, Hamlin spoke to the press on the track and elaborated at length on his performance. He admitted that a little more speed would have helped him go a long way. He added:
“I needed to be a little bit more versatile. I thought that the No. 5 was able to navigate traffic slightly better than I was, and that was a big benefit.”
On the open track, he was able to catch up with the lap leader Larson, but the traffic restricted him from going any further.
“I felt like on open race track, I could run with him and was able to catch him there on the second long stint, but I just couldn’t navigate the traffic quite as good as he could.”
After this, he went on to speak about the tire situation that did not go quite as expected. However, Hamlin was loosely aware of how things might pan out at Bristol, as he spoke about it in one of the recent episodes of his podcast, Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin believed it was the temperature that altered the tire expectancy and called it a “riddle” that was hard to figure out. He even gave Hendrick Motorsports and Larson their due credit for their absolute domination. Hamlin also added that with about 200 laps to go, he went in hard to take a pass at the leader, but having a better car ultimately gave Larson an undeniable advantage over him.
Despite failing to register a win at Bristol, Hamlin sits second in the overall driver rank two spots above Larson, and he has a total of 316 points.