Denny Hamlin reacts with frustration after disappointing day at Las Vegas

Denny Hamlin earned a P8 finish at the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race in Las Vegas but knows he missed an opportunity to earn a big win. After the race, Hamlin spoke to NBC Sports about the setbacks he had on Sunday, including pit road issues and fuel saving at the end.

“Just not a clean day. That certainly kind of sums it up,” Hamin said. “You’ll have that and 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. …It’s just part of it.”

With Hamlin’s eighth-place finish, he’s fifth in the playoff standings and 27 points below the cut line. The best way for him to reach the NASCAR Cup Series Championship is to win either at Homestead-Miami next week or at Martinsville on Nov. 3.

“I don’t know where we’re at, but certainly, we’re not running quite as strong as what we were earlier in the year,” Hamlin stated. “We’re definitely not as clean execution-wise as we were. Just got to clean it up and go to Homestead and try to win it.”

Denny Hamlin likes his chances to reach the Championship 4

Hamlin is due for a win since his last victory came in April. The interesting thing is before the playoffs began, Hamlin told reporters that it was going to be tough to advance each round.

“Absolutely. Because of the variables,” Hamlin said during the playoff media day last month. “Like, it’s one thing to not have many Playoff points but then to not have them on tracks that you know that your result is not necessarily in always your hands, it certainly makes it a precarious position but it’s what we got and I’ll do the best that I can and I know that I’m going to go to the track with the same mindset and that’s to win every week.”

Despite the challenges the playoffs feature, Hamlin is confident he can make it to the final four. “I feel like our chances are as good as anyone,” he said. “Now, I would say that the 45 (Tyler Reddick), the 20 (Christopher Bell), the 5 (Kyle Larson) have a better chance because they have more Playoff points going into the Playoffs. But, ultimately, we’re one of the very few cars that can win any given week.”