At the very start of the 2024 season, it was Denny Hamlin, after winning the Busch Light Clash, who stated, ‘”I beat your favourite driver. All of them.“ And while Kyle Busch was certainly a part of that list back then as a runner-up, it looks like the tables have turned at Atlanta. After all, Busch recovered from their incident to be part of a historic podium, while Denny Hamlin’s race kept unfolding for the worst. Despite making it back to the front on numerous occasions, it looks like lady luck just did not side with the 23XI co-owner at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Denny Hamlin’s weekend goes up in flames after the Ambetter Health 400 turns into a wreck fest

With a starting position of 13th for the Ambetter Health 400, Hamlin was aiming to enter the top five and remain there. Only 11 laps into the race, the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry XSE had already made its way into the top ten. Only a few laps later, Denny Hamlin would get a wake-up call from the loose Ford Mustang of Chris Buescher, which almost ended his race right there.

And that was just the beginning of a rather tumultuous night for the #11 JGR garage. On lap 53, Hamlin was slowly making his way toward the top five, ahead of Kyle Busch, when the two counter-maneuvered into each other as they tried to pick a faster line. Hamlin was trying to move to the middle, while Busch was slotting in behind the draft and moved higher up, resulting in the #11 Camry taking to the grass.

Despite the harrowing setback, Hamlin recovered to the front row at a point in the second stage. Unfortunately, this is when it would all go up in flames soon after. With only 1 lap to go in the second stage, Joey Logano threw an aggressive block on Chris Buescher, collecting the #17 Ford as well as Hamlin in the process.

Even after this, Hamlin still recovered to the front row by lap 170! With 43 laps to go, Hamlin took the lead, but this wouldn’t last for as long as JGR fans would’ve wanted. It all ended for Hamlin when he entered into a four-wide battle and clipped Chase Briscoe‘s rear, sending both of them spinning into the rest of the field. And with these three major incidents, it was all over for Hamlin.

Reflecting on this entire ordeal, Hamlin was vocal against the aggression some drivers showed. He shared with Bob Pockrass, “Trifecta. They mentioned we wrecked in every stage, so we completed the trifecta. I got a look at them, I feel like the victim but ai don’t know. The #41 or #14, whoever ended up spinning out, I guess I ran into, but four wide, I had nowhere to go on the bottom.  The #99 put me four wide second from the bottom so there’s just no room. And then on the front stretch, the #8 spun us but I don’t even know, I’m still caught off guard, I don’t know if I hedged too low down the straightaway, I knew I was on the outside but I’m not sure.”

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While it’s safe to say Hamlin’s race was plagued with one incident after another, the case was fairly similar for Chris Buescher as well. The only difference? Buescher managed to end things on a far better note.

Despite suffering through similar incidents as Hamlin, Chris Buescher redeems himself

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Driving the #17 Ford Mustang, Buescher was a strong contender for a win from the very beginning, much like Hamlin. While the #17 was just ahead of the big one at the start, his Mustang got loose on lap 10, making the road to the top five far harder for Buescher. Still, the Ford driver had made his way to the rear bumper of Joey Logano who was in fourth in stage 2.

This is when the No. 22 threw the aggressive block, making things go from bad to worse for Buescher and Hamlin. Throughout all this turmoil, Buescher still managed to pull through and bring his Ford Mustang Darkhorse home in 9th place, a stark contrast to Hamlin’s 23rd finish. With that said, the #17 driver had nothing but gratitude for how his garage had persevered through the storm.

He shared with FrontStretch, “I felt our buildsubmarines.com Ford Mustang was really good today, all weekend. Proud of this group, proud of the recovery and the work that went in to get us back to the top 10. Yeah I mean we were up there in a good spot, all over the fence, and got cleaned out from where I’m standing so. Not really thrilled with that, really ruined our day and the chance to compete for a win, the team didn’t give up and worked really hard to get this thing back on track.”

Buescher’s garage constantly worked on pit road to get his car fixed to a better degree with each pit stop. With all the hits the #17 took, it was quite miraculous how far Buescher had made it. He concluded by pointing out the aggression that Hamlin spoke of, “They wrecked everything tonight and were able to avoid all the next ones. We put ourselves in a good spot to really roll forward there during the last couple of laps so I don’t know, it’s a good, good effort, good recovery, that’s just the hard way to a top ten and don’t want to have to do that that much.”

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With that said, it’s safe to say the Ambetter Health 400 certainly didn’t go as planned for many drivers. And while Hamlin was beaming with joy at the Busch Light Clash, it looks like lady luck isn’t favoring him when it truly matters.