Denny Hamlin out early at the Roval after contact in final stage, still advances to Round of 8
This race didn’t have a lot going on, and then in the final stage, things heated up as they always do. Denny Hamlin is done at the Roval for today. He won’t finish the NASCAR race after taking damage to his right rear. Hamlin spun out on the final chicane and then got hit afterward.
The damage wasn’t all that bad after the initial jump and spin over the turtle bumps. Then, Mike Rockenfeller came through and put his front end into the back of the 11-car. It was clear that the car was likely done for the day.
Despite the bad news, Denny Hamlin is going to advance to the Round of 8. He clinched a spot on points after Stage 2 came to an end.
A little bitter-sweet end to the day for Denny Hamlin.
After the 11 team worked on the car, they ran out of time on the Damaged Vehicle Policy. At that point, they couldn’t make any more repairs and Hamlin was a DNF. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is going to move on in the NASCAR Playoffs despite the wreck. Good thing he saved up all of those points in the previous two races.
Meanwhile, there have been cautions and wrecks in the aftermath of Hamlin’s wreck. Cautions create cautions and the Roval is doing that in full effect. A few drivers rae going to get their hearts broken at the end of this one, folks.
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Denny Hamlin out early at the Roval
While it won’t ultimately matter for the playoff race, Denny Hamlin didn’t want his day to end like this. Toyota has been strong at the Roval this afternoon, but things just didn’t line up for Hamlin once he got stuck in the middle of the pack.
Drivers like Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch, and Ross Chastain have been battling hard to avoid elimination. It might be too late, though. For the most part, playoff drivers have stayed clean throughout the day.
Erik Jones and Michael McDowell found themselves in an incident as well. Cautions are just starting to fly as the green flag run gets longer and longer. That is what the key is at the Roval. When those runs get long, chaos is usually around the corner.
A tough end to the day for Denny Hamlin. However, it isn’t detrimental to the playoff picture. Hamlin is moving on, the only question is, who else will join him for those final five spots?