For Joe Gibbs Racing, the long-awaited win finally came in Richmond. It was homeboy Denny Hamlin who sensationally drove his No.11 to the victory lane despite the place he was at in the closing stages.

Of course, so much of the victory was down to the race strategy, something he rightly acknowledged in his post-race interview.

But this strategy that saw him winning the race could’ve seen another JGR driver take the checkered flag in his place. That driver was Martin Truex Jr. who also had a solid race after a long time.

However, it was the curious switch in his race strategy in Stage 3 that more or less cost him the win.

This was something that NASCAR spotter Freddie Kraft also pointed out in the recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast.

“I was very confused that why the (No.) 19 switched their strategy because I think they’d have probably won the race if they stayed on the same strategy,” Kraft said. “They were two-stop in the second stage and they won the second stage. And then, for some reason, they switched back to a one-stop there in the last stage and got beat.”

“They were ahead of Denny (Hamlin), and it was gonna come down to them and the 20 and 24 I felt like,” he continued.

“And for some reason, they decided to make a switch, and switch strategies and it cost them.” 

Regardless, Freddie Kraft thought “it was awesome” how the race shaped up in the end, the way it “played out in the end.”  

Denny Hamlin was almost a 100% sure of his win at Richmond

In his post-race interview, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver described how he was fully confident, with some doubt, that he was going to drive his car to the victory lane in front of his home crowd.

“Just drove as hard as I could. Just so proud of this whole FedEx Camry team, man, just never giving up,” Hamlin said.

He added, “There was no doubt in my mind, maybe just a little, but they got this car right there towards the end.”

Also Read: Denny Hamlin Reveals the Condition He Set With Joe Gibbs to “Fire” Him This NASCAR Season