Denny Hamlin updates health, reacts to hard wreck at Brickyard 400

Despite putting together a strong race at Indianapolis, Denny Hamlin wasn’t able to finish the race due to a late wreck. Going into the first overtime restart, the NASCAR veteran was collected in a fairly violent wreck.

Denny Hamlin is still looking for a Brickyard 400 to complete his run of the crown jewel races in NASCAR. His bid for the win would end entering Turn 1 on the first overtime restart of the race.

John Hunter Nemechek moved up in front of Daniel Hemric, Hemric was already there with the nose of his car. Nemechek bounced off the inside wall between the track and pit road and then up the track, collecting multiple cars and slamming into the wall.

Alex Bowman was also caught up in the mess. After leaving the care center, Hamlin spoke to the media.

“I couldn’t see I just, there was a car coming across the track, I hit them,” Denny Hamlin explained to Frontstretch.

The restarts were causing drivers to take, take, take. That was a result of the difficulty passing on the track.

“Because you couldn’t pass, yeah. We’re all just kinda running in a line there, saving fuel,” Hamlin said. “It’s like a speedway race, but we were just doing everything we could to get to the finish and couldn’t make it.”

Denny Hamlin isn’t worried about the speed of his team. It’s these fuel mileage races that are giving him a rough time.

“We’re fast every week, we’re up front, we’re just – fuel mileage, death of us right now.”

Hamlin entered the race 20 points out of the regular season championship lead. He remains 4th in the standings, but is now trailing Kyle Larson by 43 points.

Denny Hamlin falls off regular season championship hunt

The race for the regular season championship is likely a three-driver battle at this point. With Denny Hamlin falling to 43 points outside the lead with four races to go before the NASCAR Playoffs, he lost it at Indy.

Tyler Reddick held serve with his P2 finish. He entered Indy and left Indy 15 points out of the lead. The only thing that changed was the leader. Chase Elliott had a three-point lead on Kyle Larson before the race, and left 10 points down to Larson.

Kyle Larson is having a dominant season, all things considered. He missed the Coca-Cola 600, which pays out more points than any other race in the season. The fact that he has 225 stage points, 8 stage wins, and only three DNFs helps a lot, too.

Denny Hamlin was not happy after the race. There is more than one reason why. He lost out on the crown jewel and, likely, lost out on the regular season championship in the process.