Hamlin regrets his late-race tactics

Denny Hamlin might have been one of only two playoff drivers to finish inside the top-10 at Talladega Superspeedway but he was kicking himself afterward.

The No. 11 FedEx Toyota was one of what seemed to be only a handful of cars without damage following the Alabama 500. Escaping the carnage, Hamlin finished sixth and will go into next weekend's elimination race above the cutline. But he continually questioned the moves he made to not be able to grab the victory.

"I maybe should've pushed the 31 [Ryan Newman] a little bit longer," Hamlin said. "I tried to pass him in a different spot, just a flick shy of clearing him there and I knew if I could clear him then the runs were going to be very small because there were very few cars out there.

"I did what I wanted to do. I pushed him out there to the lead, stay attached and then make a move, but I just didn't do a very good job there those last two laps."

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The more Hamlin thought about and talked about, the more he wondered if pushing Newman longer was the answer. Or if not being able to clear him was where things went wrong. He finally gave in and said he didn't know what the right thing to do was.

But the fact that there were only 11 cars left in the pack, meant Hamlin could see a playoff advancing victory in sight. Which made his finish even more disappointing.

"There were so few racecars out there, my chances were pretty good to win this thing, especially given the circumstances we were the only ones with no damage. Just did everything I wanted to do for one lap, it's just the last two I didn't," said Hamlin.

The little solace Hamlin found was in seeing nine of his fellow playoff drivers finish 13th or worse.

"It certainly could've been worse," Hamlin said of his day. "There were guys around us that got caught up in wrecks and so that part of it was good for us, but you just want to have a shot to win – and we had a shot to win and just didn't quite have everything right.

"It was just there was so much battling going on with just a few cars. If you lost a run it would just take forever to try and get it back, so we finished kind of back in the pack there."

Holding a 21-point advantage on the provisional cutline going to Kansas Speedway, Hamlin is sixth in the playoff point standings.

"You always want to win, I don't care about the points," Hamlin said. "Our FedEx Toyota team really did a good job all weekend. The three big wrecks that happened, they all started in front of us and somehow, we got through every time, so it was quite amazing. Still a good day overall, but wish we had a little more."