Kevin Harvick reacts to Denny Hamlin's disappointment at Homestead

Denny Hamlin the 23XI Racing owner has to be elated for Tyler Reddick, who clinched a spot in the Championship 4 at Phoenix on Nov. 10 following his victory at Homestead-Miami this past Sunday.

Hamlin the driver, competitor and Joe Gibbs Racing star, however, has to feel like he let another opportunity slip by. Hamlin took the lead off the final restart but couldn’t find the necessary speed on the short run to maintain it. He finished third, his best finish through eight playoff races, and now heads into Sunday’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville 18 points below the cutline in essentially a must win situation.

Kevin Harvick, speaking on Tuesday’s “Happy Hour” podcast, said that while Hamlin performed better than he thought he would at Homestead-Miami, he believes Hamlin feels as if his quest of capturing his first Cup Series championship is “slipping away.”

“I think he knows that they’re slipping away,” Harvick said. “For him, and he said it, there’s no good emotions yet about anything that happened with Tyler Reddick, which shows me the determination that he had from the driver seat, and he just hadn’t gotten to the point of being happy for Tyler yet. He will get to that during the week I’m sure to be happy for his team and his driver. But he knows now that the task is getting tougher and he’s running out of opportunities.

“Now, they did run better than I thought they would. He had a real shot to go out and win the race. So, he did exceed my expectations from a performance standpoint. They did well on pit road, he drove a good race. It just came down to a scenario which didn’t fit what his car was strong at doing and that was short run. Still had a shot, I still think they’ll be tough at Martinsville, but so will Kyle Larson, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott. It’s gonna be fantastic.”

Kevin Harvick evaluates Denny Hamlin’s chances to advance in playoffs at Martinsville

Simply put, Hamlin needs to win at Martinsville. Yes, he has three victories this season, though his last came at Dover back in April. Hamlin has five wins at Martinsville and has tallied three top 5s in his last four starts at the racetrack.

Harvick isn’t sure which Hamlin shows up at Martinsville.

“He has been good in this car too, at times. More than not, with this particular car. I think he can still point his way in,” Harvick said. “There’s going to be somebody that goes on points. So I still think that he can point his way in, but I think it starts — you’re right, it does start in qualifying. … Qualifying will be important, because of that first stage and the points that go with everything.

“I think you’re going to have to score points. I think Christopher Bell is pretty safe. But I think Denny Hamlin’s point situation, I think he could, I don’t really know. Think they could go there and dominate. I think they could go there and be mediocre. None of it would surprise me. If he went and laid an egg or if he went and dominated the race, neither one would surprise me at this particular point. So, I think it’s a virtual crapshoot as to who’s going to hit it.”