Denny Hamlin 'couldn't do much' to finish better than P10 at Las Vegas

With a top-10 finish secured, Denny Hamlin isn’t celebrating. Las Vegas didn’t go exactly how he planned it to go. These NASCAR Playoffs have been good for Hamlin so far. However, he knows one mistake can cost him a chance at a championship.

Denny Hamlin looked like he had speed early on, but then it went away. Not quite the same as their teammate Martin Truex Jr., but Hamlin and his team made a mistake as well.

At this point in the NASCAR Playoffs, you have to be perfect week in and week out. Hamlin wasn’t this week.

“I didn’t have a very good restart the second-to-last one, got split three-wide,” Hamlin said after the race, via Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “Lost two spots, and then when we pitted we just made an adjustment that didn’t work, didn’t work with the car. Then add the track position to it, just way too tight at the end and couldn’t do much. So, try to do the best we could with it but tenth was all we had at the end, it just wasn’t what we had all day for sure.”

Moving forward to the next two weeks, Denny Hamlin is going to take it one race at a time.

“I mean I don’t think about the result, Bob. I just think that, how can I do the best this week and I’ll go next week try to do the best I can. So, I don’t really care about, do I feel good about where I – no. I don’t feel good about how this race ended, it’s just week to week and I’m gonna go and try to give it 100% effort next week and see if we can’t finish a little better and hopefully, try to win the race.”

Denny Hamlin still in good position for Championship Four

Three points above the cutline, Denny Hamlin is in a good position still. He’s been one of the top drivers throughout the playoffs. If he keeps his cool and keeps his head down, I expect him to make the Championship 4.

Still, he could go into Homestead-Miami next week and blow a right rear on Lap 5. Or he could face a disqualification like Ryan Blaney that puts him into must-win territory. Then again, he could go out and win the damn thing.

These NASCAR Playoffs are really shaping up. We’ve got the top talents rising to meet the moment. Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell nearly gave us a photo finish on Sunday. William Byron is still very good.

There is no need to panic for Denny Hamlin. P10, eh. Whatever. A three-time winner at Homestead, Hamlin knows his way around. Let’s not forget that Hamlin has six pole awards at Miami and he won five of those in a row from 2017-2021. A year ago he qualified P14 and finished P7.