Denny Hamlin is OK physically but down in points after Dover wreck

LONG POND, PA - JUNE 08: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota, sits in his car in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Party in the Poconos 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 8, 2013 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

 

LONG POND, PA - JUNE 08:  Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota, sits in his car in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Party in the Poconos 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 8, 2013 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.  (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
LONG POND, PA – JUNE 08: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota, sits in his car in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Party in the Poconos 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 8, 2013 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

LONG POND, Pa.–When Denny Hamlin cut a right front tire late in last Sunday’s FedEx 400 at Dover International Speedway, the mishap sent his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hard into the outside wall in Turn 1.

The impact was jarring, especially for a driver who had missed four races after suffering a compression fracture of his first lumbar vertebra during a last-lap crash at Fontana, Calif., in late March.

As it turned out, however, physical well-being was the least of Hamlin’s concerns. Relegated to a 34th-place finish in a race where Hamlin had started from the pole and run consistently in the top 10, Hamlin sustained much more serious damage to his improbable quest to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

“I feel pretty good,” Hamlin told the NASCAR Wire Service on Friday at Pocono Raceway. “Actually, afterwards, I felt the best after that Dover race–of course I was 20 laps short at the finish, but better than I really felt there after any Dover race.

“I think physically everything was good. It didn’t affect me at all. Obviously, it kind of caught me off guard when (the tire) did blow and hit the wall, so I really didn’t have time to get tight or anything. Everything was pretty good.”

Not so good was Hamlin’s standing in the points. He slipped two spots to 26th and is 74 points out of 20th, the position Hamlin must reach after 26 races to be eligible for a wild card position in the Chase. In other words, there’s almost no margin for error in the next 13 races.

“I have (to run) an average now of two spots better in each race on performance just because I had one bad finish,” Hamlin said. “That’s a crusher as far as that’s concerned. That part of it is tough. Obviously, if we do win a couple times, more than likely… we were edging our way and we were going to be in good shape had we not blown that tire, we would have been down in the 40s (points down) to 20th with plenty of time.

“Now we set ourselves back to where we pretty much started again. We’ve done the math, we know what we have to do, but obviously we know that every bad finish hurts us that much more.”

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.