Denny Hamlin breaks down pit road incident with Ty Gibbs

Despite another top-5 finish, Denny Hamlin probably feels like he could have had more, if not for a pit road incident with teammate Ty Gibbs. Gibbs was a little too low on pit road and Hamlin had to swing wide to avoid Austin Cindric’s crew members. That led to a wreck between the NASCAR drivers.

It was just at pit road speed, but folks, that is still roughly 45 miles per hour. People in regular cars can get hurt in wrecks at that speed. Cars get totaled at that speed. For Gibbs, his Toyota Camry TRD was killed as a result.

Denny Hamlin took damage to his right side. He was able to finish the race, though. After the race, Hamlin talked to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports about the contact and how he felt about it.

“I mean it definitely took speed out of our car and hate it for Ty, certainly, it destroyed his car,” Hamlin said. “I had the changer from the 2 [Cindric], I was trying to avoid him. He had just stood up to go around the left side of the car so I had to swing out to avoid him and you know, we were three wide there.”

Hamlin continued, he knew that Gibbs wasn’t at fault, just a bad timing situation.

“Yeah, it’s just a tough circumstance for everyone. Certainly, in Ty’s position, he’s trying to race the guy off pit road that he’s side-by-side with and he knows I’m coming out but he doesn’t know how far so it’s very tough spot to be in for sure.”

Denny Hamlin describes what happened when he had contact with Ty Gibbs on pit road. pic.twitter.com/y2nZ1UVGkq

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 25, 2023

Right now, it looks like Denny Hamlin is a contender. He has a win in the playoffs and has been a top-5 car every week. Even when he doesn’t finish in the top-5 he has shown speed or led laps before encountering issues.

Denny Hamlin looks strong through four races

Four races into the NASCAR Playoffs and Hamlin is arguably the top of the field. William Byron stealing that win on Sunday at Texas changes things. I felt that Byron’s hardest round would be this one.

Now, he’s moving on to Las Vegas where he won earlier this season. Let’s also talk about how fast Kyle Larson has been. He looked like he would drive away with this one until he got too aggressive with Bubba Wallace. He went up the track and spun out with less than 20 laps to go, ending his day.

Denny Hamlin is controlling his own future at the moment. Even with the damage to his car, he finished P5 at Texas. The fact he finished, where others did not, speaks volumes. His teammate Martin Truex Jr. continues to struggle.

So, it seems that we are headed for a Championship Four with maybe Byron, Larson, and Hamlin? Besides those three, who else looks poised to make the race in Phoenix?