Denny Hamlin makes most of good fortune with positive points swing at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — On a tumultuous Talladega Sunday when the postseason fortunes of many drivers diverged and scattered, Denny Hamlin may have had the wildest playoff swing in the right direction. The positive movement stemmed from a final pit stop that seemed to be Hamlin’s undoing, then ultimately turned into a fortunate stroke that helped him avoid the race’s largest crash.

Just like Hamlin and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team drew it up?

“No,” Hamlin said, “but can I say yes and get away with it?”

Hamlin salvaged a 10th-place finish in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, providing him with substantial headway in his NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs quest. He exits the middle race of the postseason’s Round of 12 with a 30-point edge over the provisional elimination line for Sunday’s event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, where just eight championship-eligible drivers will be left from the current dozen.

Hamlin’s day had already hit a hitch with his involvement in a crash at the end of Stage 2, one that damaged his No. 11 Toyota and sidelined Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain. He continued on, but appeared to be sunk after his final stop for service.

Hamlin veered toward pit road with a mix of Toyota and Ford teams on Lap 171 of 195, and his crew changed two tires during the fueling. That decision, said No. 11 crew chief Chris Gabehart, was based on concerns about excessive tire wear from the front-end damage, which altered the steering angle — plus the tires were changed in the time it took to add fuel. When Hamlin resumed at the back of the pack after a slight delay exiting the pits, the ill effects of the earlier damage took hold, and the veteran became unhooked from the aerodynamic draft. He dropped more than 10 seconds behind, falling to 32nd.

“Silence on the radio,” Hamlin said of his feeling in the car. “I just assumed silence is bad news, and I knew that we were dead last of the cars that were running. I think that the damage that we had from the Blaney incident, just it really got magnified once we got to the tail end of the pack, and then we lost the draft because we just weren’t fast enough. So yeah, just … it was looking grim. And then all of a sudden, you know, I had some good luck.”

That windfall of good fortune came at the expense of most of the pack when a colossal 23-car crash erupted well in front of him with four laps remaining, forcing a red flag. “I was a mile and a half away from the wreck when it happened,” said Hamlin, who tiptoed by the melee at the end of the backstretch.

Hamlin moved up 20 spots in the exchange after the stoppage. Those gains, combined with other playoff contenders falling out of the race, moved Hamlin from minus-17 relative to the running elimination line before the crash to a plus-27 position before the final restart.

Two-thirds of the remaining playoff-eligible drivers placed outside of the top 15 once the checkered flag fell, ending a chaotic day at one of the circuit’s most feared maelstroms. Hamlin wasn’t among those unfortunate eight, notching his third consecutive top-10 result.

“I feel happy about it,” Hamlin said. “I mean, ultimately, if you would have said I’d be where I’m at, I would have certainly took it before this race happened. So I think we’re very fortunate today.”