Denny Hamlin 'wasn't surprised' that Kansas produced a tight finish
Denny Hamlin believes that the NASCAR race in Kansas this past weekend produced a finish that wasn’t surprising. On his Actions Detrimental podcast, the 43-year-old driver explained he wasn’t shocked to see the race produce the closest finish in NASCAR history.
“Especially when it comes down to a green-while checker, anything can happen in that scenario,” Hamlin said. “When you have cars come off pit road, they do have tires, at least right side tires like the two winners had. It’s an opportunity for cars to get side-by-side and then stall each other out and then have a great finish.
“It wasn’t that outlandish to see the type of finish that we did. But I would say going into Turn 3 on the last lap, with [Chris] Buescher clear in the lead, you would think well, there’s no way that’s he’s going to let Kyle [Larson] get beside him and he did.”
Denny Hamlin says Kansas was a ‘great race’
Larson won the race by a nose, and it was so close, the finish had to be reviewed by officials. That was one of the big reasons Hamlin enjoyed the race despite finishing fifth.
“This I thought was an overall great race, the entire race was great,” Hamlin said. “It was a fantastic show. …This is another track now probably our best two races of the year, when it comes to Bristol and Kansas, is two tracks where we wore out the tires. There was guys that were pitting at the end of that race because they were wearing the tires out. Surely to God NASCAR, you’re not thinking of changing the tire when it comes to this because the show is absolutely amazing.”
With Larson winning the race on Sunday, he’s now first in the NASCAR Cup Series standings. After the race, Larson talked about the wild finish.
“I was obviously thankful for that caution,” Larson told reporters. “We were dying pretty bad. Was happy to come out third, and figured my best shot was me choose bottom and try and split three wide to the inside. Worked out my car turned well and was able to get some runs.
“Got through 1 and 2 really good down the backstretch and had a big tow on Chris, and got him to kind of enter shallow, and I just committed really hard up top. Wasn’t quite sure if we were going to make it out the other side. I got super loose in the center, and then we’re just trying to — I’m trying not to get too far ahead of him to where he can side draft and then I was just trying to kill his run. It was crazy.”