Denny Hamlin suffered a dispiriting result at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday afternoon, as his race was over before it ever really had a chance to get going.
The No. 11 wheelman suffered a blown engine at the onset of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, something we don’t see too often in the Cup Series anymore. It resulted in a last-place finish for Hamlin, and the three-time winner in 2024 losing his lead in the points over eventual race-winner Kyle Larson.
After the dust settled on the race, during the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin provided the NASCAR world with some hilarious quips regarding his DNF, as he dealt with the fallout from the race.
“I’m not an engine guy. I would think that if you just ran more practice, you would’ve found it. It would’ve shown up in qualifying. If you ran four more laps of practice, it would’ve blown up at the end of practice, and then you wouldn’t have had all of these issues. But still, unfortunate,” Hamlin elaborated. “It was like we weren’t even there. We pulled a Kyle Larson on this race. We just didn’t show up.”
Of course, Hamlin is harkening back to Larson not racing in the Coca-Cola 600, which started a gigantic debate regarding whether the No. 5 should receive a waiver for the playoffs. Larson eventually received one, and now he’s back in victory lane after a win in Sonoma.
At the least for Hamlin, he can make light of what happened to him during the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Still, it wasn’t an ideal afternoon, and there was never any indication that his vehicle was about to be done for the afternoon when the engine went, according to the veteran driver.
“No, no [indication],” Hamlin told Jamie Little of FOX Sports following the engine blowing. “Just the gearing is a little weird for the track. There’s a lot of high-end RPM stuff — same as everyone else and just blew up on Lap 2. Not really sure. They’ll look at it and figure it out, but certainly not ideal.”
Prior to his DNF, Hamlin had amassed five consecutive top-five finishes dating back to his win at Dover in late April. Instead of another top five, Hamlin added to another unfortunate streak with his last-place finish, as he’s finished P31 or worse in his last three starts at the road courses.
For Denny Hamlin’s sake, he’s hoping his Kyle Larson-esque performances are more like what we saw at Sonoma than what happened during the Coca-Cola 600 over the rest of the 2024 Cup Series campaign.
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