Denny Hamlin includes himself among drivers in trouble in NASCAR playoffs

Denny Hamlin recognizes he might be in a bit of trouble following this past weekend’s trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which began the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

The veteran wheelman came home P8, but he didn’t capture any stage points, and with Joey Logano winning the race, Hamlin now finds himself 27 points below the cutline. According to Hamlin, things just didn’t go his way in Sin City.

“Yeah, just not a clean day,” Hamlin said, regarding his P8 run in Las Vegas. “That certainly kind of sums it up. You’ll have that. We’ll just do the best we can to get the best finish.

“I thought Chris [Gabehart] did a great job trying to get some sort of finish. Once we lost the track position early, he was doing everything he could to try to get it back through some alternate strategy. It goes long there, we fall back to the back. Just part of it.”

During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin put it all in perspective for the drivers on the outside looking in at the moment. While he’s not necessarily putting himself in a must-win situation at the moment, he realizes no mistakes can be made at Homestead or Martinsville.

“There’s a distinct cut-line now. We’re on the other side of it,” Hamlin stated. “… If you want to talk about must-win, it’s probably going to be Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, and if you’re going to talk about must-run top three in every stage and the race for the next two weeks, it’s me and [Tyler] Reddick. No exceptions. You must — if you don’t run in the top three every stage, that’s four stages, and the race, there’s no way we make up that kind of ground on [William] Byron, [Kyle] Larson or [Christopher] Bell. That’s assuming, also, that one of them doesn’t have a great week, you know, doesn’t have a great finish.

“So you need some help as well. It’s looking more and more clear on what needs to happen right away.”

Alas, Denny Hamlin’s championship outlook has looked bleak before in these playoffs, and the No. 11 team came up big with a massive performance at Bristol. Will they be able to do it again over the next two weeks? It remains to be seen, but count them out at your own risk.