Chicago 'light years better than I expected' - Hamlin

An up-and-down day in Chicago could have left Denny Hamlin lamenting an 11th-place finish, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver found plenty to be pleased about.

Hamlin started from pole position in the inaugural street course race for the Cup series. But on lap 3, things when sideways when Hamlin slid sideways through Turn 2 and bounced off the tire barrier. The incident dropped Hamlin to 12th and set him behind for the rest of the afternoon and he didn’t lead a lap or earn stage points.

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“Honestly, I was terrified of running in the wet, to begin with,” Hamlin said. “I didn’t know what I was doing and just drove in there and went too far and slid right in there. Luckily, it didn’t really cause any damage it just coughed up my track position … and that was a killer because our car was an absolute rocket.”

Hamlin bounced off the tire barrier with the driver’s side of his No. 11 Toyota. So minor was the contact and damage, it didn’t faze Hamlin.

“I thought I hit at like 5 miles an hour, I didn’t think it was very much at all,” he said. “There was a bunch of guys who piled in head-on into the barriers that kept on racing, so these cars are pretty tough.”

It was a fairly uneventful rest of the afternoon for Hamlin and his team, although he did run into Alex Bowman in Turn 11 on lap 41. Hamlin said that was more to do with treacherous track conditions in that corner.

Overall, he appeared content with how the day unfolded. There is no telling how it would have played out if the race could have finished the full distance or if NASCAR officials had called the shortened distance at a different time.

“(The day) wasn’t so bad until everyone got flipped,” Hamlin said. “Everyone that didn’t even know the end of the race was coming ended up going to the front. So basically, all the slow cars in the back pitted, and then it worked out because of the change in the end of the race.”

Was Chicago a missed opportunity? A day of what could have been? Not so much for Hamlin.

“This is light years better than I expected,” Hamlin said. “The team’s performing, the car has speed. My speed. I hate that we finished 11th, but it’s like, (expletive), this is the best we’ve freakin’ run on a road course ever in my career. So, there’s a lot of positive.

“We still got to execute. We were really fast at Sonoma too, but nothing like we were today. But man, I’m looking forward to the Indy road course. Crazy enough to say.”