Denny Hamlin breaks down driving with no power steering after Kansas failure: 'It sucks'

Denny Hamlin knew early in Sunday’s Round of 12 race at Kansas Speedway that he had an issue with his power steering. While you would have never known as Hamlin led a race-high 159 laps, he was fighting through every turn inside his No. 11 Toyota.

“First of all, it sucks,” Hamlin said on Monday’s Actions Detrimental podcast “… I noticed it very early in the race as I was swerving to try to get my tires cleaned up. It would click-click and every time I would turn to the right, it would get stuck, unstuck, stuck, unstuck. Got to where I was looking at the coupler because I thought it was cracked. It was making that kind of noise right around where the steering wheel was. I was like, ‘Is something getting stuck in the wheel?’

“They had me re-cycle the engine, I turned everything off which I am super paranoid. I’m going [Turns] 3 and 4, I get a run on the pace car to give myself time to get everything reset and it’s not like cutting everything off with an on/off switch. You’re cutting off the battery, everything.”

Denny Hamlin was going through it at Kansas

Having no power steering meant that Hamlin had to exert even more energy to get around the racetrack. He explained that he had a “death grip” on the steering wheel, just hoping that it wouldn’t stick in the corners.

“I could only turn the thing a certain amount before it sticks,” Hamlin said. “If you look the entire long run there at the end, I had to go really, really slow and really, really small on my inputs. So, I would just enter the corner and hope I didn’t get it into one of those sticking spots. So, the whole time I am death grip to this steering wheel because if it sticks, I gotta unstick it.

“There were a few corrections that I had where it would stick and then I’m pulling to get it unstuck and the back into the power steering. It’s not like I didn’t have full power assist, but I’m telling you, holding that wheel preparing for it to dart one way or the other or get stuck one direction or another, that’s what wore me out.”

Denny Hamlin had an eventful race at Kansas

Hamlin’s race won’t be remembered for his mechanical issues. It’s all about the last lap and what happened with Bubba Wallace. Hamlin entered Turn 3 nearly even with Wallace for the lead. Hamlin washed up the track and made contact with Wallace, who brushed the wall. That allowed Chase Elliott to drive by both of them on the bottom and take the checkered flag. Even there, the steering problem played a role.

“When I entered the last corner, when I turned as hard as I turned, once I got it to as far as I could turn, I got stuck in that position,” Hamlin said. “I unstuck the thing, and I actually wish I didn’t unstuck it because I would have been closer to the 9 car. But I’m turning, I’m up the racetrack, turning left trying to stay off the 23, I downshift, the f*cking wheel is hung and I’m going left.

“We go down, we hit the 9, I get it unstuck and at that point I’m like, ‘Get back down there.’ As a driver, it [makes you paranoid] so much because you just don’t know when it’s coming. You don’t know when all of a sudden, your power steering is not there.”