It was the run Denny Hamlin and Chris Gabehart needed Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway to advance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, but not the one the duo wanted.
“I’ll be honest with you … call me what you want, but my first emotion is I’m mad we didn’t win at my favorite track,” Gabehart said with a laugh. “When I tell you this race means more to me than the playoffs, I mean it, and if we come here and put on a winning performance, the points take care of themselves.”
Hamlin, who was not only the defending race winner but won the spring race at Bristol, crossed the finish line fourth in the Bass Pro Shops night race. The finish and nine stage points Hamlin earned propelled him back above the cutline to advance into the second round of the postseason by 15 points.
“I wish we could have won,” Gabehart continued. “However, we didn’t have the margin that [Kyle] Larson or [Christopher] Bell or some of those other guys had to let it all hang out here, which is what we have to do with 200 to go to win this race. I so wish everybody understood how hard it is to do what you’re watching out there. At this level, you cannot give 99 percent. It’s not enough.
“To race from a deficit, and the last 200 [you] have to not lose what you’ve earned rather than have this big buffer to be able to risk it — that’s the difference. You look at the guys who finished up front: Larson had a buffer, Elliott had a buffer, Bubba Wallace is not racing for anything. It’s just a different world. I’m thrilled to move on. I want to win Bristol.”
Having started eighth, Hamlin described it as a night of slowly chipping away. He did not want to be focused or informed of the point situation entering the weekend, instead aiming to race for a victory.
A 24th-place finish at Atlanta and a 23rd-place finish at Watkins Glen put Hamlin in a six-point deficit going into the elimination race. As the night wound down, and having spent the race running with the leaders, Hamlin admitted he was waiting for the other shoe to drop and misfortune to strike again.
“I told them I didn’t even want a countdown,” he said. “I’ve had some unfortunate things happen, so I was definitely just hoping this thing went green and let the thing finish out naturally, and luckily everyone kept their head on.”
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Finally, Hamlin said, it was a decent run. It was the team’s first top-10 finish since the regular season finale at Darlington Raceway and just the second for the group in their last five races.
“I want to get back on [the] track of contending for wins, and I think tonight’s a good step for that,” Hamlin said. “Then we go to Kansas, where I really feel confident. I feel like this is a reset. This is time to put away the past and go all offense.”
Going on offense means Hamlin won’t fall into the same trap at Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Roval. Just as in the first round, a superspeedway and road course are coming up, and Hamlin did not execute well at Atlanta or Watkins Glen on those styles of racetracks.
Hamlin plans to be more aggressive in the second round, but first the team needs to get through Kansas Speedway and see where they stand.
“Overall, this round is very similar, but we couldn’t have finished any worse than what we did the first two [races] and we still made it,” Hamlin said. “Hopefully we do the same.”
An abnormal round battle-tested the No. 11 team, and Gabehart believes it will make them stronger. Like his driver, there will be no making the same mistakes going forward.
“It’s one thing to have it in the Round of 8 or the Round of 12 even — a little bit of adversity — but to be tested in the Round of 16, where we clearly don’t belong being tested on performance,” Gabehart said. “The fact of the matter is Atlanta is a coin flip-style race. Watkins Glen on such a new tire is a coin flip type scenario going into it, and we just didn’t execute well on those coin flips. That’s the bottom line.
“To come to a track where we should control our destiny, and do, certainly gives us a new lease on life, and we won’t forget what we’ve learned. I can promise you we’re going to go to Talladega and race our [butts] off, and we’re going to go [to] whatever the Smith family has dreamed up for the Roval next and race our (butts) off. I’m looking forward to it.”