Denny Hamlin sees lead slip away due to multiple cautions, fuel issues: 'Certainly stinks'

A wild day of racing at the Nashville Superspeedway saw Denny Hamlin on the cusp of a win twice, only to be let down by the caution flag. In a race that featured multiple overtimes, Hamlin eventually ran out of fuel and finished in 12th place.

He was oh so close to the win, too.

Hamlin was the race leader by a solid margin as it came to a close, with just two laps to go when Austin Cindric spun out and drew a caution flag. That sent the race to overtime, where fuel became a problem for Hamlin.

He pushed it as far as he could go but ultimately ran out of fuel.

“We ran out there under that caution,” Denny Hamlin said in a post-race interview on the track. “[Crew chief Chris Gabehart] was monitoring fuel pressure. I let him know what the fuel pressure was. We were fine with just running out of gas, but we did under caution. So it was the right call. I was going down pit lane there out of gas. I was surprised it lasted that many green/white checkereds, honestly.

“Certainly stinks, about 15 seconds from a win at the end and then 10 seconds from the win at the end and then we finished 12th. It’s just part of it.”

Even after the race went to overtime Hamlin remained in a dead heat for the win with Ross Chastain. Kyle Larson was trailing close behind in third.

Denny Hamlin’s fuel issues were exacerbated when Larson got into Chastain and spun him out, throwing another caution flag.

But despite some recent tussles with Larson on the track, Hamlin didn’t find anything untoward about Larson’s driving. That even though the two bumped a bit back and forth near the end of the second stage.

“I thought it was fine. We were messing around with each other, like we were last week,” Denny Hamlin said. “We were battling for third right there on the stage and he ran me up, which was all good. I ran him up last week a little bit. On the restart with the 22, the 22 was mad at me, but the 5 tried to clean us out there, and I think he tried to clean us out at the end there but got the 1, so it all worked out.”

It had to have been disappointing for Hamlin to finish in 12th after such a great performance, being right on the cusp of the win a couple times.

Sometimes that’s just how it goes, though.

“That’s NASCAR Cup Series racing,” Denny Hamlin said. “Once you get one of these green/white checkereds it’s going to be chaos and everyone’s just going to run into each other. It’s just part of it. You know that there’s multiple green/white checkereds coming and certainly when we’re strategizing for a race you can’t really predict for that. We just needed Cindric not to spin out the first time and then this one would have been over, but it’s just part of racing.”