Denny Hamlin admits his prediction for chaotic Daytona race was wrong

Denny Hamlin is admitting he was wrong about his prediction for Saturday’s race at Daytona.

Like many others, Hamlin thought we’d have a chaotic, wreck-fest on our hands for the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale. While there were some big ones throughout the contest, it wasn’t like that for the most part, so Hamlin is taking his medicine.

“I guess I was wrong. I was wrong. I called for chaos. Wrecks all over the place. Eh,” said Hamlin, via his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I can tell you, for 70% of that race, I sure was hoping for some wrecks,” explained Hamlin. “I’m sitting there just riding in the back, waiting on a caution, and it never comes.”

Alas, Hamlin’s strategy didn’t exactly work out for this style of race at Daytona. Even when he tried to run up front, he decided to drop to the back and wait out a wreck, but the wreck never came.

“There was a point that I pulled out of the pack,” added Hamlin. “You know, I bailed on the pack, because I was three-wide bottom, and this is when the action was actually getting pretty dicey. It was three-wide by three-wide for a bunch of rows, and I’m trapped on the bottom. So I can’t go anywhere. I’m not going to go forward. I’m not going to the side. I can’t, I’ve got someone pushing me from behind. I just was like, I don’t have the track position I really want, so I’m just going to bail here and count on a wreck about to happen, and eliminate the odds of being in it, and it just never happened.

“Then we had a pit road penalty, under green, which you just cannot have, and I then just watched the race for the rest of the race. I’m just in the back of the pack.”

In the end, Hamlin didn’t catch his teammate Martin Truex Jr. for the NASCAR Cup Series regular season title, but it wasn’t all bad for the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman. At least Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing are headed to the playoffs, making it on points with the final transfer spot.

Nevertheless, Denny Hamlin wishes he would’ve had a better race at Daytona, but he simply gauged the race wrong on Saturday. He’ll be looking to gain some momentum back throughout the playoffs over the next couple of months.