Denny Hamlin: Bubba Wallace might be doing 'too little too late' amid playoff bubble battle

As the NASCAR regular season runs down to its final race, the playoff picture has grown increasingly crowded. And Bubba Wallace is in danger of being on the outside looking in when the music stops.

That despite the fact that Wallace has been in excellent form of late. But is it too little too late?

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Denny Hamlin suggested it just might be.

“It’s not sour grapes on my end that the 23 team’s in this spot. It’s just, man, I’m liking at least what I’m seeing when it comes to the performance now,” Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “This is good, acceptable performance. I hate that it’s came so late in the game, but they’re on it right now. They’re running well.”

Bubba Wallace had his chances at Daytona, running multiple laps with the lead. But he finished P6, a good standing for points but a costly finish when considering that Harrison Burton came from 34th place in the standings to win and take another playoff spot.

The 23XI driver was frustrated with his performance despite the improvement lately, and some have suggested that his recent run late in the season has been a product of more favorable tracks.

Hamlin thought consistency was a bigger factor.

“I think that how suited you are to some tracks and the schedule does play a role and a factor, but I do think that maintaining intensity for 36 weeks is very, very hard,” Hamlin said. “It’s extremely hard. But it’s what the elites do. The elites prepare every week, whether it’s a good track or a bad track or a medium track. It doesn’t matter, you prepare the same, with the same intensity, and you go out there and you give it your all.”

Bubba Wallace sits 21 points below the playoff cut line heading into the final week of the season. He likely needs a win to get in or some real help catching Chris Buescher.

Hamlin broke down what it takes to be consistent, something that has seemed to elude Wallace this year and leaves him on the brink entering the final week.

“It’s just very, very hard for people to do that because you’ve got other s*** going on in your life,” Hamlin said. “Trust me, I know. I’m torn in 18 different places during the week, but I always make sure that I give my job my A1 job. I give it my 100%. I never want to leave any stone unturned when it comes to being a racecar driver, because that’s the shortest runway of career I’ve got left. But it’s hard to do.

“Sometimes it’s not because of effort. It’s just because the pit crew needs time to gel and the driver/crew chief relationship needs time to gel, and you’re building notes and rule changes over the offseason and you don’t adapt to them well. That’s all part of it. But the elites, man, bring it every single week and they overcome when s*** goes down on the racetrack. They come back for a great finish.”

Can Bubba Wallace do that and win at Darlington? We’ll have to tune in to find out.