Denny Hamlin was where he wanted to be at the end of Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but it wasn’t enough to finish first.
Hamlin wound up third in the Straight Talk Wireless 400, losing the lead with two laps to go. He was passed by Ryan Blaney going into Turns 3 and 4, and then by the car he co-owns, driven by Tyler Reddick, on the final lap.
“I’m not really sure,” Hamlin said of what he could have done differently. “I tried to cover all lanes, but just couldn’t quite get off the corner as good as I needed to there on that short run. The short run wasn’t my specialty all day, obviously.
“But either way, controlling the race with two to go, you got to try to find a way to finish it and just didn’t.”
Hamlin took the lead on the final restart of the afternoon with seven laps to go. He restarted on the outside of the second row and drove around Blaney and Reddick going into Turn 1. The initial gap he built over Blaney was erased when the reigning series champion used the bottom lane to pull even with Hamlin off Turn 2 in the final laps.
It was a day the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team needed. Hamlin led 21 laps and earned 14 stage points.
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Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s crew chief, also chose an alternate strategy to help his driver with track position. Gabehart ran Hamlin long on green flag fuel runs, which put him in the middle of the top 10 when it cycled out, but gave his driver fresh tires to make up the difference on the long runs.
In stage two, the call allowed Hamlin to drive through the field to win the stage. The same strategy was in play again in the final stage when Hamlin did not pit until 39 laps to go. Again, at a deficit, he needed to erase 18s with 25 laps to go to get to the lead.
Hamlin was running sixth with 22 laps to go and into fourth place with 17 laps to go. When the cycle completed, as Reddick was also on the same strategy, Hamlin was running third and was 6s behind. Then came the final caution with 13 laps to go, which moved Hamlin to second place coming to pit road.
He left pit road in the same position, but Reddick stayed out on track to inherit the race lead and set up the final run to the finish.
“Chris gave me everything I needed there to try to race him,” Hamlin said. “Just didn’t get it done.”
A victory not meant to be an aside, Hamlin did close the gap on a transfer spot into the championship race. He entered the weekend in a 27-point deficit, but is now 18 points behind going into the elimination race at Martinsville Speedway (Nov. 3, 2 p.m. ET).
“It’s another opportunity,” he said, “Certainly you’re not out of it until they throw the checkered flag at Martinsville.”