Denny Hamlin breaks down late-race pit strategy: 'Trying to do anything we could to win'
Tonight Denny Hamlin won a stage but ultimately lost the race at Martinsville. Mostly thanks to two pit stops in the final stage. No controversial NASCAR overtime restart for him this week.
Denny Hamlin was in the lead when green flag stops began. William Byron undercut the entire field and was the first to make his pit stop. By the time Hamlin came out of the pits Byron had managed to pass him in the cycle.
Without another caution flag until the final two laps of the race, William Byron took a comfortable lead. Hamlin thought he could go to pit road for tires and drag cars with him, setting up a better shot at the overtime restart.
Hamlin talked with Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut after the race about the final pit stop.
“We were just trying to make a call there to drag some others down with us. But with the tire wear not being much of anything it’s probably a stretch to think others were gonna pit with us, but that was our strategy,” Hamlin explained. “We knew we weren’t going to win, we were trying to do anything we could to win.
“So, Chris’s strategy is ‘We’re not going to win if we restart fourth on old tires.’ So, pit, try to drag seven, eight cars if we could possibly do that. Nobody else pitted. So, everyone else with old tires just finished up front. We did all we could, we made our call last week and great pit crew last week got us a win and this week just didn’t work out.”
When asked about the green flag pit stop, Denny Hamlin isn’t sure what happened. The cycle played out. He ended up on the losing end of it all.
“I’m not really sure. Certainly, we had some engine mapping issues coming to pit road that really slowed down how well I did on pit road. So, we gotta look into that but I’m not really sure who pitted when and who gained what advantage I’ll have to kind of break it down once I get back.”
Denny Hamlin has had a good season so far. He has two wins and the Busch Light Clash victory. While he didn’t get the grandfather clock, Hamlin did finish P11. Not awful, but that Stage 2 win makes it a little more bearable.
As for the Cup Series overall, William Byron has put everyone on notice. Three wins on the year and that 24 car is looking like it’s 1998 all over again.