By Seth Eggert, Associate Editor
A late-race fuel strategy call ultimately salvaged a day of poor execution for Denny Hamlin in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
When fellow Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs spun off Turn 2 with 74 laps to go, Hamlin had been running at the tail-end of the lead lap. The No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE was uncharacteristically ‘off’ when compared to other NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers.
The Chesterfield, VA native pitted for the final time under that caution. Crew chief Chris Gabehart opted to put Hamlin onto the same strategy as eventual race winner Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, and others. As Christopher Bell, William Byron and others pitted, Hamlin moved up the running order behind both Logano and Suarez. With those that pitted on fresh tires, they slowly caught back up and dropped Hamlin to eighth by the checkered flag.
“Our finish was decent,” Hamlin said. “Chris did all he could to try to make up some track position there in Stage 1 and 2 and we just kept spinning our wheels trying to do that. It just kind of put us back and then he did a great job getting us to the fuel saving strategy there at the end to get us top-10.”
Hamlin’s lack of pace dropped him quickly out of the top-10 in the opening Stage of the race. Timely cautions repeated kept the veteran driver from falling a lap behind the field. Slow pit stops due to conservative pit entries and loose wheels also hampered the only driver to have made the NASCAR Playoffs in every year of the elimination era.
“This is definitely a poorly executed day,” Hamlin admitted. “We’re just lacking a little bit of speed and lacking a ton of execution from where we were earlier in the year and certainly those that just kills you in stages and it kills the end points.”
The eighth-place finish was the 43-year-old’s 16th top-10 of the 2024 season. It was also the 356th top-10 finish of his Cup Series career.
Despite the lack of Stage points, Hamlin moved up to fifth on the Playoff Grid. He is 27-points behind the final spot for the Championship 4, currently held by Byron.
Next for Hamlin is the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In 19 starts at the 1.5-mile track, he has three victories, most recently in 2020. Hamlin’s best finish in the NASCAR NEXTGen car at Homestead is seventh in 2022.
The Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway is scheduled for Sunday, October 27 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC. The race will also by broadcast on both the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.