Denny Hamlin thought he had the best car in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for a brief moment.
He instantly understood he was mistaken.
Early on, it was clear that Martin Truex Jr. would be a contender for the win, but Hamlin was able to stay close to Truex and even lead five laps at the start of the second stage.
Truex and the most of the lead-lap cars chose to pit during a caution for a collision involving Kurt Busch on Lap 107, but Hamlin stayed on the track and took over the lead.
On the restart on Lap 115, Truex jumped from third to first in two revolutions on fresh tires, while Hamlin slid back on older tires. He would not lead the race again, finishing fifth following a late-race collision with the barriers.
Truex went on to lead 248 of the 293 laps, win both stages, and win by 2.571 seconds over Kyle Larson for his third win of the season.
“I honestly thought we had the best car for the first 150 (laps) and then we got off-sequence there by staying out, which we thought everyone was going to stay out to save tires,” Hamlin said. “I should have just (pit) when everyone else was coming, but I didn’t make the call and Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) made it too late.
“Either way, we stayed in the top-five and then we got third on that restart and I just didn’t have the car that I had before. Lost some grip. I think the track burned in a little bit and we just lost the advantage that we had for the first 100 (laps).”
Hamlin stated he and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team would not waste time figuring out why Truex was so much better than the other three cars in the organization.
“We’ll dive through it. Myself and my crew chief are too tough of competitors to not dig into that,” Hamlin said.
“Honestly, it’s probably the worst butt whooping we’ve had all year and still (a) top-five. We expect to run a little better than what we did today.”
Hamlin, 40, still leads the series in points, but he has yet to win the race this season.
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