Denny Hamlin reacts to Darlington result, evaluates playoff points position

Denny Hamlin started on the pole at Darlington this past weekend, but he didn’t have enough to contend for the win in South Carolina. Still, he started the Round of 16 off with a solid run, finishing P7 when the checkered flag waved.

That has him in a more than solid position heading into World Wide Technology Raceway, especially considering numerous playoff drivers struggled at Darlington. Hamlin put it all into perspective when evaluating his performance on the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“I suppose so,” Hamlin stated, regarding whether he’s satisfied with his performance at Darlington. “I hate leaving points on the table, but there’s probably 13 guys saying, ‘Damn, I wish my day was better.’

“You’ve got to put it all in perspective. Being in the position I’m in now, 43 up? Absolutely, I would take that.”

Barring an absolute disaster in Illinois or at Bristol the following week, Hamlin has to feel good about his chances at moving to the Round of 12. His first championship is on his mind, and that’s where the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman wants to end up at the end of the season.

Whether he’s able to or not remains to be seen. Regardless, Hamlin has four wins, and it feels like there’s more to come with the speed he has at the moment. Whether to not it leads to the whole shebang is the question on everyone’s mind.

More on Denny Hamlin, NASCAR’s trip to Darlington

Moreover, there wasn’t any drama for Hamlin or his 23XI Racing drivers at Darlington. All three managed to secure solid results on the track.

Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Hamlin all earned stage points. They also all brought home top-10 finishes. Reddick was the best of the trio, finishing P2 behind Chase Briscoe, who dominated the race.

After the finish, Hamlin spoke to the media about the solid day at Darlington. He felt like he could have contended for the win, but we’ll never know. 

“You know, good day all around for 23XI, good day for us from a points standpoint,” Hamlin said, via Frontstretch. “I wish we would have executed better to kind of see where we stacked up. You’ll have that. But overall, you gotta come out of days like today unscathed and obviously, the three of us have.”

All told, the Southern 500 was not as kind to others as it was to the Toyotas. You have Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, and Josh Berry all below the cutline between -3 and -19 points. So, not an impossible deficit to make up, but a challenging one for sure. 

— On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.