Hamlin ekes out points lead after tough day in Sonoma

After a consistent summer surge, the NASCAR Cup Series points lead was finally Denny Hamlin’s to take Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.

And take it he did.

Barely.

Tyler Reddick entered the Toyota/Save Mart 350 clinging onto an eight-point advantage for the regular season championship after suffering a flat tire in the closing laps of the preceding race at Naval Base Coronado.

With an 11th-place qualifying effort that left him one row behind Hamlin, Reddick was positioned to fight his team’s co-owner for the top spot on Sunday. But a poor opening stage gave way to bigger troubles when Reddick came to pit road with power steering issues to open Stage 2.

In a race with no other attrition of note, that doomed the Californian’s day. He finished four laps down in 36th, with no opportunities to make up the lost ground.

That opened the door for Hamlin, who found himself inside the top 10 heading into the final stage. But the Virginian got the worst of contact on a lap 64 restart, sending his No. 11 around in Turn 7 and dropping him deep into the field.

The accident came from a stack-up behind Hamlin, with Carson Hocevar making the fateful contact as he was pushed from behind by Brad Keselowski.

From there, Hamlin was forced to crawl forward. While his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates all enjoyed top-five runs, Hamlin quietly soldiered on from the back to salvage what he could from a lost day.

By the time the checkered flag flew, that wound up being 26th, a full 62 seconds behind teammate Chase Briscoe as he hounded eventual winner Shane van Gisbergen for the victory.

“It’s frustrating, for sure,” Hamlin told assembled media of his day on pit road.

“Once we got to the back, the nose got damaged so much that it just took all the downforce off it,” he added. “26th was all we could come back to.”

If there’s any small consolation for Hamlin, it’s the major swing he took in the standings. The end result was unfortunate, but the 10-point haul that came with it was enough to give Hamlin a one-point edge for the championship lead with eight races left in the regular season.

Hamlin is the first driver outside of Reddick to hold the championship lead after the 23XI Racing star opened the year with three straight wins. The pair are racing for a 25-point bonus that comes with the title, a hefty incentive that could be the difference given the return to the Chase and true points racing this fall.

The swing is nice, but Hamlin knows after a result like Sunday’s that both teams are still far away from having outright control of their destinies. All they can each due is keep marching forward.

“They’ve had misfortune, and today we had misfortune,” Hamlin said. “We’ve just gotta race it out.”