Denny Hamlin explains curious pit road tire decision at Talladega

Denny Hamlin seemed destined to contend for the win during the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway over the weekend, but a myriad of factors took him out of contention for the checkered flag.

One of those factors included a curious decision on pit road as the final stage was coming to an end. The No. 11 team decided to take two tires during their pit stop with 15 laps to go, and it led to them losing the draft. The decision was curious, and Hamlin took some time to pick it apart during the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“We just were really smart this weekend,” Hamlin said sarcastically, regarding the decision to take two tires and the race at Talladega as a whole. “We took two tires with 15 laps to go. We came in pit road wherever we came in, we were probably about middle of the pack, and he called me to pit road. I thought I did an okay job coming to pit road. We come in, I take two tires. I leave pit road, and at that point, I’m the last car to come off pit lane. I knew I had some damage, so I really couldn’t tell much of the extent of the damage that I had most of the day, because I was in the pack. I had a lot of air disturbed around me, so I didn’t understand how slow my car was.

“When I came off, the last car on pit road, and I started to — as I’m going through the gears, I’m starting to see cars pulling away, I’m like, ‘Oh shit, this is not good. I’m going to lose the draft, and very quickly.’ It’s something with the aerodynamic package and this car, it’s very easy to lose the draft at the tail-end, even if your car is healthy, but I just had entirely too much damage. We spent too much time on the cycle. Somewhere between when I decelerated off of Turn 4 and when I left pit road, we spent too much time.

“I don’t know where that time was, and me and Chris will dive into it today, but we came off last of pit road and I lost the draft, but it turned out to be quite the break.”

In the end, the pit stop actually helped Hamlin in a way — he was so far removed from the pack that he avoided “The Big One,” which collected 28 cars, and helped the No. 11 team find their way to a top ten finish in Alabama. If it wasn’t for the mistake on pit road, Hamlin likely would’ve been involved, like the rest of the field.

Nevertheless, Denny Hamlin is 30 points to the good heading into the final race of the Round of 12 at the Charlotte Roval, and looks primed to advance to the Round of 8. We’ll see if he can iron out his mistakes over the next couple of weeks, in search of his first Cup Series title.