Hamlin staying centered as the path to a championship narrows

Denny Hamlin is focused on his team bubble, not Kyle Larson’s incredibly consistent first-half run in the Chase, which has changed the complexion of the championship fight in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“The way I see it, if I win five in a row, we’re going to be the champs,” Hamlin said Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I can’t win five in a row unless we win one in a row. So, I have to focus on one first, and then go from there. We can’t control what the (Larson) team does.”

Thus far, Larson is on a historic Chase run with a 2.2 average finish that includes two wins in the first five races. After taking the point lead from Hamlin after Bristol Motor Speedway, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has continued to expand it. Hamlin is 40 points behind going into Sunday’s race on the Charlotte oval (3pm ET).

Hamlin's average finish in the Chase is 10.8, with three top-10 finishes. He entered the postseason as the No. 1 seed with four wins.

“We have put together a great 30 races or so, but we’re going to need to perform a little bit better if we’re going to overtake those guys, and certainly with the performance they’ve had,” continued Hamlin. “All we can control is our own outcome, and that is something I don’t think we did a really good job of last week. So, that has to be our focus.”

A spin in the first stage at Las Vegas damaged Hamlin’s race car and led to a 16th-place finish. Meanwhile, Larson and his team rebounded from an ill-handling car in the first stage to finish second.

In hindsight, Hamlin never would have pitted in the first stage, regardless of the call, had he known where Larson was running. But he was called to pit road and afterward felt he needed to make up the track position (he had made it to fourth place) when he spun. Hamlin admitted the spin was his mistake.

“It just lingered longer than it usually does,” said Hamlin of needing a day to get over the Las Vegas race. “Usually, I wake up on Monday and probably turn the page pretty easily, but I don’t know, I woke up more mad on Monday than I did Sunday night. So, understanding the situation of when you know you have a car capable of winning, and you go there and score 22 points, that is leaving lots on the table.

“And for me, that was super frustrating, and I needed a day to unplug from everything racing and then do a reset.”

Hamlin will start 12th on Sunday at Charlotte through the performance metric because qualifying was rained out. Larson starts on the pole.