Denny Hamlin probably wasn’t expecting to spend his Friday night explaining a blown engine while standing beside an overturned race car. Yet that was the scene at the Freedom Factory on November 13. The NASCAR veteran had just finished the 2.4 Hours of LeMullets, an event where the usual rules of Cup racing gave way to Crown Victorias, heavy contact and a few spectacular crashes. Hamlin had his own share of trouble, but he wasn’t quite ready to call it a bad night. Then Cleetus McFarland asked him what happened.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“I hit everything but the lottery”
“The car knocked the radiator out, blew the right rear coming to the checkered.”
That answer made considerably more sense after Denny Hamlin showed what remained of his No. 11 Ford Crown Victoria in a video posted on X.
The radiator was gone, the engine had blown and the right-rear tire had failed. Hamlin explained that the engine gave out coming off a turn, at almost exactly the same moment the tire blew. He was racing Ty Dillon for second when both problems struck. There was no saving the car after that.
The interesting part was that Denny Hamlin wasn’t particularly bothered by losing his chance at a better finish. His attention had already shifted to the battle happening ahead of him. He had a front-row view of the fight between Dillon and Carson Hocevar, and that was what he wanted to discuss with McFarland.
Dillon, sharing the No. 10 with his father Mike Dillon, had been leading as the race approached its final lap. Hocevar, meanwhile, was driving the No. 77 alongside McFarland. When the white flag came out, Hocevar made his move and pushed Dillon out of the lead.
Dillon fought back into Turn 1, but ran wide approaching the backstretch chicane. That gave Hocevar the opening to reclaim the lead and take the victory.
Hamlin clearly liked what he saw, even if he wished Hocevar had been a little more aggressive.
“I really needed Carson to get just a little more aggressive with the 10. I never usually ask for that, but that’s what I needed. But I had a front-row seat to it, and it was fantastic.”
He also singled out the timing of Hocevar’s move. Getting Dillon out of position was one thing. Making sure he couldn’t recover and take the lead back was another. Denny Hamlin called it textbook execution. The No. 77 eventually crossed the finish line first, with Dillon second and Hamlin’s damaged No. 11 finishing third.
There was a reason the interview was taking place beside an overturned car, too. Bug Strmiska, driving the No. 51 with Downforce Danny, had rolled his entry during the event.
Rather than simply walking away, he climbed onto the overturned vehicle and raised his fists toward the crowd. Ryan Preece had also endured a difficult evening. After an earlier crash forced him into a backup car, he later spun into the tires while fighting near the front.
The event’s format made these incidents part of a very different racing environment. The 2.4 Hours of LeMullets featured two-driver teams, mandatory driver changes and nitrous-equipped Crown Victorias.
It was not a NASCAR-sanctioned Cup race, and the drivers weren’t fighting for championship points. That distinction also explains why the contact looked very different from what fans usually see on Sundays.
Hocevar’s appearance carried its own significance. His 2026 Cup season had ended in controversy after his Martinsville incident with Austin Cindric led to a suspension for the championship finale. At the Freedom Factory, he was back racing aggressively. After winning, he even joked about the incident, saying,
“I’m glad it was the front bumper — the back bumper was pretty expensive last time I used that.”
It was a pointed reference to the Martinsville controversy, delivered in an event where hard racing was part of the attraction.
Denny Hamlin didn’t leave with the trophy, but he certainly wasn’t short of stories. Just days after the Cup season ended at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he was racing again, this time in a battered Crown Victoria.
The engine and tire were finished, but his sense of humor survived. And judging by his reaction to Hocevar’s last-lap move, he wouldn’t have traded that front-row seat for anything.