“Didn’t F**king Matter” – Denny Hamlin Left “Hot Under the Collar” After His Disappointing Outing at Home Track

Published 04/04/2023, 1:36 PM EDT

Every motorsport team strives to win but also understands that losing is just a part of the sport. However, no team would desire to lose because of some errors over which they had complete control. For a prestigious team like Joe Gibbs Racing, to maintain their dominance, winning races is a must. But the recent display of their top driver was arguably not up to the mark.

In the recent Cup Series race held at his home track Richmond Raceway, Denny Hamlin finished 20th, which was surprising for many as we usually see him finishing in the top 10. In light of this, in a recent episode of his podcast, Hamlin revealed why he was furious during the entire race and why he lost time. Spoiler alert! It is something that one doesn’t expect from a veteran driver.

How Denny Hamlin dug his own grave at Richmond?

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The Richmond race portrayed a better display than the COTA race. But Denny Hamlin didn’t get a chance to become a part of the leaderboard owing to his own mistakes. During stage 1 of the race, Hamlin sped in the pit road, attracting a penalty.

In the ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast, Hamlin revealed his observation from Richmond. He said, “So, what I noticed is that at Richmond, NASCAR’s pretty scarce with its tire allotment. Sometimes it makes for a pretty good strategy when you have to manage your tires.”

To make up for the lost time, Hamlin gave his best shot, but JJ Yeley was blocking Denny’s way, which made him furious and led him to deliberately bump Yeley out of his way. He then revealed how caution spoiled their strategy.

He said, “You know again I’m in the heat of the moment and I’m really upset about the day. At the time I was 5 seconds behind the leader… I needed to pit before the leaders and I would’ve been the leader if I got 2 or 3 lap older tires than the leader, good luck passing me.”

“I just think that I would have a really good shot, but the caution came out,” he added.

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Hamlin clearly didn’t have a good day at Richmond. It is to be noted that he had a chance to finish better than he did, but owing to his mistakes, he couldn’t.

Hamlin didn’t learn from his mistake

With the situation getting out of hand, Denny’s desperation to score better rose. To make up for the failed strategy, Hamlin rushed into the pit lane but forgot to maintain his speed and received 2nd penalty that hit him hard.

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Hamlin disclosed how his second pit road penalty ended all the hope he had to improve his chances. He revealed, “20th? 6th? Didn’t f***ing matter to me. I’m running 13th guys like I’m trying to get to 11th. But I finished 20th because I’m pushing on pit road, to try to get back some of the spots, and so the second penalty.”

“It wasn’t meaningless it cost me probably 8-9 spots on my finishing position.”

“They all mattered as all these points matter but I’m just hot under the collar because you know I’m trying to get a win total and if you’re gonna do it you’re gonna have to execute perfectly.” He added.

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Denny’s finish at the Richmond Raceway is not completely a strategic fault. It is he who has to be present in the moment and be aware of the rules, especially when the stakes are so high. Otherwise, there’s no point in putting in the effort just to lose it all because of a fault.

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Written by:

Aneesh Gupta is a NASCAR Author at EssentiallySports. It was his fascination with the automobile and engineering world that made him fall in love with motorsports in the first place. Having grown up seeing movies like Days of Thunder and The Last American Hero only cemented his passion for the American Stock car racing series.

Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh

“Didn’t F**king Matter” – Denny Hamlin Left “Hot Under the Collar” After His Disappointing Outing at Home Track

How Denny Hamlin dug his own grave at Richmond?

Hamlin didn’t learn from his mistake

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