Hamlin on title chances after another rocky day: 'You've gotta play the ball from where it lies'

Sunday was more of the same for Denny Hamlin in the Chase.

The first five races of the postseason have left the Joe Gibbs Racing driver admitting that things have not been smooth, and there has been a fair share of not performing. Las Vegas, the site of the halfway point in the championship fight, started with Hamlin on the pole, but he didn't score stage points after spinning in the first stage and damaging his car.

It was a solo spin through the high side of Turn 4, with the damage coming when the car transitioned down the banking onto the apron. The incident set the tone for the rest of the afternoon, as Hamlin fought his Toyota, then had a fuel pressure issue that cost him more spots and ultimately left him 16th when the dust settled.

“I guess there were marbles up there,” Hamlin said. “But I was just trying to get back the track position that we lost, and I just went up there and got in the marbles and spun out and obviously damaged the car to where it was nothing like it was before.”

The first caution of the afternoon, on lap 44, led to split pit strategy, with Chris Gayle bringing Hamlin down pit road. Hamlin restarted around 10th and made it inside the top five, to fourth, when he spun.

The fuel pressure issue came under caution at the start of the final stage. Hamlin said he had no idea what happened, but that the car cut off. The lost positions shuffled Hamlin back to 23rd, and a protest to NASCAR to regain his original spot failed because Hamlin had not maintained caution pace.

“There is nothing you can do now post-race, so you just got to go on to the next race and see if you can find a way to win,” said Hamlin of the day and whether it was a missed opportunity. “Charlotte will be good for us, but today certainly didn’t live up to what we expected.”

The lack of stage points could have done Hamlin in, but his closest title rival, leader Kyle Larson, only scored one stage point. But Larson rebounded from his difficult afternoon to finish second, and extended the point advantage to 40 (from 26).

“I’ve not really digested it, really, truthfully,” Hamlin said. “You’ve gotta play the ball from where it lies, and where it lies is we have a little gap we have to make up, so we have to perform at our best.”

On whether he still feels he has a chance to win the title, Hamlin said, “Sure, if we can perform speed-wise like we have today, at least in the first stage before the damage, then yeah, we can.”