Denny Hamlin: ‘I gotta get a little better’ after falling short in Clash

Last night, despite leading laps, Denny Hamlin only brought home a P3 finish in the NASCAR Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. A four-time winner in the Clash, Hamlin was not able to win the newest edition of the race.

Had it not been for Chase Elliott, maybe Denny Hamlin could have won this race. There was also Ryan Blaney who came from dead last P23 and finished P2.

There isn’t anything to be upset about if you are Hamlin and new crew chief Chris Gayle. But there is work to be done. Getting his car to a place where it can hold on throughout a race, instead of falling off, will be critical.

“I did in the first half. It’s just as it goes on, it just seems like I lose a little bit of the juice that I had,” Hamlin said in the postrace media availability. “Certainly, I felt like the first half I could just kind of maneuver anywhere I wanted to go. A lot of people kind of learned from that. I could see a difference in lines in the second half versus the first.

“Yeah, I don’t know, I just gotta get a little better and figure out just what kind [of] makes this thing go and what makes it go for the entire race, not just the beginning.”

Denny Hamlin won three regular-season races and the Clash in 2024. However, the second half of the season was not so great. He fell off and the speed just never returned to the 11 team.

In the first 100 laps of the race, Hamlin was battling hard with Chase Elliott. He managed to take the lead for the last few laps before the halfway break. In the next 100 laps, Hamlin wasn’t able to keep up.

Denny Hamlin falls short in Clash

The “warmup” has come and gone. With the Clash now officially over, it is time for the real season to start. For Denny Hamlin, each week will be a test of him at 44 years old and a test of his new partnership with crew chief Chris Gayle.

After one race together, so far so good, but there is room to improve.

“Overall, it’s always been a way to build into our season,” Hamlin said after the race. “So we get the next couple weeks, next few days debriefing on this, the tiring, what can we learn from today’s race that can apply when we run this tire again. We’ll put our brains together and see if we can’t get a little better.

“I definitely agree, we’re always the next best. This is like Martinsville where it’s like, the 9 and 12 were better. I’m the next guy in line or the next guy in line. Got to get over the hump.”

Denny Hamlin couldn’t start the season with a win like he did in 2024. But adding a fourth Daytona 500 would be more important than winning the season-opening exhibition.