Martinsville difficulties ‘a microcosm’ of Hamlin's postseason

It was the same song, different verse yet again for Denny Hamlin on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin finished sixth, but it wasn’t a remarkable day. Certainly not in the bigger picture, as it remains, to him, unrealistic that he will win the Cup Series title. The gap shrank by only three points going into the finale.

“I would say it’s the story of the Chase where we didn’t capitalize on the speed that we had, and it came down to the first stage,” Hamlin said. “That was an absolute killer for us. Obviously, our strategy did not work out [by] staying out. I had no tires and obviously lost all our track position, and then we got to start stage two at the tail because there was a caution that was poorly timed for us.

“We just fought for track position, and it took all day to get it back, and then obviously the damage didn’t help at all either. So, a tough day but kind of a microcosm of what we had the last couple of weeks.”

The pole and track position didn’t last long for Hamlin. After leading 40 of the first 83 laps, he fell behind Ryan Preece before eventually falling out of the top 10 and stage points. He never led the race again. By running the stage to completion on worn-out tires, Hamlin finished 17th.

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“I saw everyone pitting, and I was waiting on the time to get called – I thought [Chris Gayle] was just waiting late and maybe running long,” said Hamlin. “But then with about 40 left in the stage I realized we were going to go the whole way. So, at that point, we made our bed, and it just was a dirty, old, stinky bed nobody wanted to be in.”

The untimely caution in the second stage came on lap 199, which was eight laps after Hamlin pitted under green. It forced the team to take the wave-around, which, although he was in 14th position, put Hamlin at the tail of the field.

Then came a near disaster. Hamlin was spun in a chain reaction that started with Joey Logano getting into Christopher Bell, who bounced off Hamlin in Turn 1.

Hamlin finished 12th in the second stage. That left him with no additional points for the day.

“When we lost control, it just is too difficult with everyone being so close to drive back to the front,” Hamlin said. “You can do it with strategy and different things. But not in today’s world are you going to drive back through the field.”

Kyle Larson leads Hamlin, who fell to third in the points, by 70 points.