“We Just Lost the Edge!” Denny Hamlin Bemoans Charlotte Result as Kyle Larson Extends Championship Lead

As it has been throughout his career, lady luck seems to have abandoned Denny Hamlin since the start of playoffs or Chase. He started the 10-race championship round with a solid point advantage at P1 and now finds himself at P2, 49 points behind defending champion Kyle Larson, despite consistently securing top-10 finishes.

This weekend’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway witnessed the No:11 driver finishing P5, one points better than the No:5, only for the gap to extend to nine more points. The pit-stop penalty owing to his crew member felling over the wall while attempting catch a rouge tire. It ruined his stage one result, costing him bug time towards the end.

Talking about the race, the veteran highlighted how he had a flying start, but lost his ground with the momentum killing penalty and the track getting cool as the night came. The change in temperature had a negative impact on his pace, while ironically his teammate Chase Briscoe went onto win the race after a photo finish involving teammate Christopher Bell.

Obviously tanked there the last 15 laps or so. Just didn’t have the long run speed that we needed. I thought the short run was okay. It was decent. But I felt like we were a lot better when it was daytime, and then once it cooled off and the track got a little bit faster, we just lost the edge that we had.

Denny Hamlin said via mototrsport.com.

Lamenting about his bad luck and the poor set of result, the veteran asserted that one key reason behind his failure to reduce Kyle Larson’s championship lead was due to poor execution. Denny Hamlin and co needs to find the pace on and off the track, with just four more races left in the chase.

We’ve just got to execute better, be a little faster, all of the above. But ultimately, we’re giving it all we’ve got right now.

Denny Hamlin added.

Denny Hamlin is clueless about where they can find pace

Later in the same conversation, Hamlin talked about the No:11 team lacking the race winning pace unlike teammates Briscoe and Bell. They are fighting for wins while the most experienced racer in the team is making mistakes and is struck in a front-raw mediocrity.

He admitted that he really has no idea where they are lacking pace and how his teammates have been better than him the last two weeks. They major weakness so far in the playoffs have been themselves and that needs to take care of.

I don’t know. Yeah, I’m really not sure.  I got to look at this race, but I mean, they (teammates) weren’t (faster than Hamlin) last week. I was very confident they weren’t last week, but we eliminate ourselves.

Denny Hamlin said.

The comments from the veteran about this factor are on point and shows how challenging the championship is, with just four more races left to crown the champion. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming race weeks.

Also Read: Brad Keselowski Indirectly Blames RFK Racing For his Cup Series Winless Streak