Denny Hamlin didn’t have his best day in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway, coming away with a P24 finish.
Hamlin went down a lap early and later found himself involved in the Lap 219 accident with Kyle Larson. But as he described on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast this week, it could have been even worse. When Hamlin needed that caution flag, he got it. When he needed to get the lucky dog, he got it and so on. All those little breaks throughout the day saved Hamlin from finishing in the thirties and turning a disappointing day into a disastrous one.
“I was trying to race but I was in handcuffs like, I can’t go any faster,” Hamlin said. “If I could go any faster, I wouldn’t have gone a lap down in the first place, but the leader passes me and I’m like, ‘Just do everything you can to stay in this lucky dog spot.’ And I didn’t, but we were able to wave around. It was one of those races where the finish probably would’ve been way worse had the cautions not fell for me in the correct spot pretty much all day long.
“I was able to wave when I needed to, able to get the lucky dog when I needed to, the caution came when I was going long in Stage 2. Like, all those things really helped us stay in the game and then when our car destroyed, I mean we were way slower than the field but still finished 24th because it trapped other cars’ lap times down for the whole race and then my car was so slow after the crash, it allowed me to just slowly bleed those spots as the race went on and not finish in the thirties.”
Denny Hamlin looking to rebound this Sunday at New Hampshire
Hamlin has now uncharacteristically had back-to-back duds at Sonoma and Iowa, respectively. The week prior to Iowa, Hamlin finished P38 at Sonoma after suffering an engine failure just two laps into the race.
Despite the recent form, Hamlin is a three-time winner this season and had five consecutive top 5s before Sonoma. He sits third in the points standings. Hamlin will undoubtedly be a trendy pick this Sunday at New Hampshire. He has captured the checkered flag three times in Loudon and has a 9.4 average finish across 30 starts.
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