LONG POND, Pa. — As much as he wants to win each week, Denny Hamlin entered Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway with a goal: stop the bleeding.
It had been an uncharacteristic streak of races for the three-time Daytona 500 champion, finishing no better than 12th over the previous five races. Certainly, it wasn’t for a lack of pace – just unfortunate circumstances such as a blown engine at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway and surrendering his overtime lead for fuel at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver finally righted the ship Sunday, finishing second.
“That’s the biggest part, it’s just stopping the bleeding,” Hamlin said after the race. “We’ve had quite the skid over the last five weeks of finishes, the performance has been very good. But man, just feels good at least to have a good day. Nothing crazy happening.
“I thought we were really good. I thought in all facets, we were really strong.”
The Chesterfield, Va., native had a near-perfect afternoon. He scored 54 points, finishing second in Stage One and winning Stage Two.
However, Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gabehart went onto an alternate fuel strategy. The team ran as hard as possible during Stage Two rather than preserving fuel, and during the lap 95 break, elected for a longer stop to pack the fuel cell as tight as possible. Consequently, Hamlin dropped nine spots on pit road.
During a lap 115 caution for Todd Gilliland, the No. 11 machine pit one final time, electing for right-side tires like many of the other contenders. This time, he needed less fuel, shaping Hamlin up to restart second after Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs were caught speeding.
“We were doing that because it was going to be really close on fuel,” Hamlin said, recounting the race strategy. “If the race goes green from that point on, the other cars in front of us — they ended up getting a penalty — but they weren’t going to make it. I just think that they were going to be short on fuel, so we decided to make sure that we had it packed full of fuel.”
Over the final 40 laps, Hamlin said he needed the race to play out perfectly, and ultimately, he didn’t have enough laps. He got bested by Alex Bowman on a lap 133 restart and later had to re-pass him for second. By that time, it was too late to track Ryan Blaney down for the win.
“We just didn’t have enough green,” Hamlin explained. “I certainly would have loved to see our chances on a long green flag run. But you know inside that last fuel run, restarts are going to get crazy, and it’s going to be tough to get 40 straight laps.
“Good points day, but I just care about wins. I’m trying to get as many wins as I can. I always tell Chris to call the race to win it. He tried, and the race just didn’t work out in our favor.”
Blaney’s win was his second of the season – both of which have come in the last month. He led the final 44 laps after finally gaining track position and clean air late.
“In practice, while I was quicker on the short run, I thought that (Blaney) was actually pretty good in practice,” Hamlin said. “You get a car out front, it’s gonna go automatically a lot faster than what you’ve seen all day. That was probably the first time that the 12 had gotten some track position, so he was finally able to show some of the speed that he had.”
Hamlin sits fourth in points, just 20 markers behind series leader Chase Elliott.