Denny Hamlin laments the ‘bad driving’ at Richmond as Chris Buescher steals the spotlight
Denny Hamlin was able to end his Richmond outing with 49 points, finishing P2 leading 20 laps.
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Chris Buescher (Credits: @RFKracing/ Twitter) and Denny Hamlin (Credits: trendradars.com)
Joe Gibbs Racing veteran driver Denny Hamlin’s fight for back-to-back Cup race win ended in vain as bad driving prevented him from catching up with winner Chris Buescher. RFK Racings’ No:17 driver became the 12th different driver to score a win this season and locked in a playoff spot. The Ford driver was already in a good spot with points.
Denny Hamlin was six seconds behind the leading Mustang when the first and only natural caution of the 400 laps race was called. Both drivers pitted, and the RFK team got their man out front. The No:11 Camry had a poor restart which allowed Buescher to get away and continue his second-half domination easily.
In an effort to catch up with Brad Keselowski’s driver on the inside, Hamlin drove hard to turn one, but the move backfired as he shipped it into the turn and slipped up the track losing momentum and speed. While talking about his performance, he admitted that driving cost him a third win of the 2023 season.
“There were so many things I did wrong on those last few laps…But, yeah, I was so close to him into Turn 1 when I shipped it in there, I had no air on the nose and the left-front tires just locked all the way up. Just bad driving on the initial restart and bad driving into Turn 1 took us out,” Hamlin is quoted by the RACER.
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The promising start ended in dismay for Denny Hamlin and 23XI Racing
Hamlin and his driver Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, had a dream start to the race. The three times Daytona 500 winners’ hard work on the sim was seem to paying off but trouble during halftime of the race, including botched-up pit stops, cost them what could have been a strong end and maybe a Toyota win.
“It was just a day where I thought I was going to get beat by my own stuff. That team has really struggled at this racetrack, and they worked closely with the 11 car this week, and I worked hard on the sim for all three cars. We came here with the same stuff, and we all ran about the same until some stuff happened in the middle of the race,” Hamlin said.
Reddick, who started the race on the pole, was able to secure just a P16, while his teammate Bubba Wallace secured just a P12 finish despite starting the race at P5. Both drivers could lead the race for 80 and 81 laps, respectively. The only good thing today, though was the fact that Wallace was the best-finishing driver in the playoff bubble, which helped him to secure a 50 points cushion.
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Justin P Joy
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