Denny Hamlin tears into team after 'Cowboys' code word goes wrong, penalty in Texas NASCAR race

First pit stops of the day today at Texas, and Denny Hamlin is having issues. His team’s code word, “Cowboys,” did not go over well. Instead of completing a clean pit stop, Hamlin sped on pit road and then didn’t even make a pit stop on his first trip down NASCAR pit road.

So, to put it simply, Denny Hamlin went down pit road twice and got a speeding penalty. That meant a trip to the very back for Hamlin and his team, and now they are stuck in a tough position on the track.

Hamlin was frustrated with his team. He says the botched stop was due to too many people talking on the radio at the same time.

“You can’t call a team that’s the same f***ing name as another …. Never mind,” Hamlin said on the radio, via Steven Taranto of CBS Sports.

“You boys were talking over each other, and I heard ‘Cowboys,’ and obviously I looked at my card.”

Just a terrible miscommunication. I guess you could say at least it is early in the race. There is a lot of time for the 11 team to mess around with strategy and get back to the front. No doubt, his job has gotten a lot harder than it needed to be.

Again, a lot of time is left. The main issue is that passing at Texas is so difficult. Dirty air will be the talk of the day yet again. However, we have seen the groove widen out and that will only help these cars with passing. Let’s hope it opens up enough.

Denny Hamlin has to go where they’re not

The plan moving forward is to either get ahead on pit road or find a way to get this car set up to run on the outside. Early in this race, we have seen Tyler Reddick take the outside lane and use it to his advantage. He is running higher than anyone else.

So, Hamlin has to make big moves on pit road, under caution, or get this car running high. That is going to be easier said than done. It appears that out of 38 cars on the track, Reddick is the only one able to move up high in Stage 1.

It looks like Hamlin will be able to get to the top-20 before the end of Stage 1. At least, he will be right there on the edge. It is hard to say when he will stop passing so easily and get into rougher traffic.

Denny Hamlin made an early mistake and got a penalty. He will try to be perfect for the rest of the evening. Can he bounce back from this?