Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin shot himself in the foot with a vague strategy call during the Cook Out 400 race at Martinsville Speedway. With a late caution sparking an overtime finish, Hamlin’s crew decided to make a cheeky strategy call and hit the pit road before the restart. However, the HMS trio of William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott did not fall for the bait and secured their track position for the restart.

Meanwhile, Hamlin, who was running fourth behind the leaders, dropped down to the 10th spot. This certainly was a blunder by Hamlin’s crew, as he could have finished well inside the top 5 places, but instead, he had to be content with a P11 finish after the end of the race. Who knows, he could’ve had a genuine shot at winning the race had he stuck to his original track position and pressured the HMS-leading cars on the restart.

Denny Hamlin’s late gamble didn’t pay off

Feeling confident about his tactical approach from last weekend’s win at Richmond Raceway, Hamlin and his team sort of took a gamble at Martinsville. With not enough tire wear and trying to lure other drivers to make a pit stop, the #11 car pitted during overtime just ahead of the restart. Unfortunately, none of the lead drivers fell for his trickery.

Explaining his reasoning for making the seemingly strange call of pitting, Hamlin, after the race, said, “We were just trying to make a call there to drag some others down with us, but you know the tire wear not being much of anything; it was probably a stretch I think. We weren’t going to win, so the strategy was to pit and try to drag seven or eight cars, but nobody else pitted. We did all we could. We made a call last week, and a great pit crew last week got us the win, and this week it just didn’t work out.”

In fact, the biggest tactical move was pulled off by William Byron and his team, who pitted early in the green. Moreover, the #24 car was swift through the traffic and didn’t allow the trailing pack to gain on him in the final stage. Acknowledging this racecraft, Hamlin further added, “I didn’t get to see, but the car is really good and superior, and if you’re a good driver like he is, you’re gonna be able to navigate. I don’t know when they pitted, but it certainly looked like those guys hit the light switch at the end.”

However, the #11 crew chief, Chris Gabehart, clarified that the late pit stop was his call and finishing fourth or fifth wouldn’t matter to them given that they have two wins in the bag.

Gabehart explains his reasoning behind the late pit stop tactic

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As soon as William Byron pulled off the surprise pit stop ahead of the leading pack, the rest of the cars and team were only playing catch-up. Moreover, Hamlin’s crew chiefGabehart also revealed that JGR driver’s car had issues coming on and off the pit road, thus not helping his cause in trying to catch the lead car. In the end, with overtime to conclude the race, they tried to create diversion and chaos, but their attempts were in vain.

“Yeah, we have two wins, and we’re going to have to restart fourth there. I only told Denny if no one in front of you pits, which means we’re going to restart fourth to go ahead and pit, try to shake it up make something different happen. Fourth or fifth is ultimately no different to us than, tenth or eleventh, given that we have two wins,” Chris said after the race.

Moving ahead, Hamlin will look to try to take back his winning position with next week’s race at the Texas Motor Speedway. Do you think he’ll be able to it? Let us know in the comments below!

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