By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Denny Hamlin maintained a sub-one-second lead on Kevin Harvick as the No. 11 Toyota entered Turn 1 with the top spot. With only six laps to go, Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was sure to be Hamlin’s first win in the Brickyard 400.
Until disaster.
Halfway through the first turn of the famed course, Hamlin’s right-front tire exploded, careening his Joe Gibbs Racing vehicle into the outside wall. A flash fire trailed behind the flattened car as Hamlin eased it through a patch of grass and to a stop.
From the race lead to the infield care center, Hamlin was saddened to have his first Indy victory taken away. In violent fashion at that.
“It’s just tough. I hate it for the FedEx team,” Hamlin said. “We didn’t do what we needed to do, and it didn’t work out for us today. I had a fast car obviously and was stretching it out there but wasn’t pushing right front at all.”
Running amongst the top three positions nearly all day, Hamlin led 19 laps on the day and was reeling in a fifth win of 2020. Unfortunately, Hamlin followed a trend of blown tires on the day, joining JGR teammate Erik Jones among others with a hard hit.
“It’s kind of roulette if you’re going to get [a tire] that will stay together or not. And mine didn’t. You saw the end result,” he said.
In his 15th Indy start, Hamlin continues his winless drought in the sport’s crown jewel.
“These big races — things don’t go my way all the time,” he said. “We’re still going to go next week and try to win the next one. We’ll do all we can.”
Before the crash, Hamlin was on his way to beating Harvick for the victory, which would have made it a third consecutive 1-2 finish for the duo in 2020. Though it didn’t see the checkered flag this time around, Hamlin has enjoyed the close competition in Harvick’s No. 4 team.
“It’s been a great battle and those guys are great competitors,” he said. “The last few weeks, it’s been head-to-head with me and him. There’s probably not another guy I would rather battle with each and every week.
“Congrats to them and their team, they did a great job. Obviously, we had two very, very close and equal cars. They got it today.”
Gutted. I’ve been trying to win the Brickyard for so many years. Come so close. This one hurt on many levels.
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) July 6, 2020