The inaugural race of the playoff season, true to expectations, had every NASCAR enthusiast biting their nails. From Kevin Harvick heading into a closing pit road to an unfortunate tangle involving an unsuspecting Ryan Newman, the race had it all.

Yet, what really raised eyebrows was Denny Hamlin‘s unexpected P25 finish, especially after he’d blazed through the first two stages. Piecing together tidbits from the radio chit-chat between him and his crew chief, it’s clear Hamlin wasn’t ready to shoulder the blame for the failure.

Denny Hamlin unwilling to blame himself for Darlington race loss

While Kyle Larson raced to the finish line, almost kissing the walls multiple times in the final laps to secure his maiden victory on the track, it’s notable that he led for a mere 55 laps. In contrast, Hamlin led the charge with a whopping 117.

The wrench in the works? It wasn’t seemingly Hamlin’s doing, but a pit stop hiccup. When Hamlin pulled in for a pit stop during lap 270 to swap out tires and tank up, the clock seemed to get the better of his pit crew.

Merely three laps later, Hamlin was back in the pits, and the airwaves buzzed with his concerns to crew chief Chris Gabehart about a possible loose wheel. Gabehart, playing devil’s advocate, reassured him, stating, to him and the crew, that all looked shipshape. But Hamlin, sticking to his guns, countered, “They were loose.”

Evidently, Hamlin firmly believed his drop from the pole position was due to a pit crew slip and not due to his driving. What’s more intriguing is that even with Hamlin outpacing a sea of competitors at Darlington, he missed out on waving the checkered flag.

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The Joe Gibbs driver didn’t see eye to eye with his racing comrades on the Darlington lights debacle

As the lights threw a spanner in the works at turns 3 and 4, prompting a caution, the drivers played the waiting game. But Hamlin seemed to think otherwise and kept going with the race.

Dishing out his two cents on the issue in his latest podcast, Joe Gibbs shared his conversation with Chris, recalling, “I said to Chris, and Chris says, ‘Hey, they wanna know what you think about the lights.'”

But later, Hamlin had a change of heart, figuring it’d be smooth sailing for drivers with clear tracks ahead but not so much for those in the thick of things. Thus, he was on board with the decision to hit the brakes.

Hamlin?s initial jitters? Fearing a lengthy power outage delay. But lady luck smiled at him as the blackout was brief?just a hiccup of 5 to 10 minutes. Hamlin noted this was the sole non-racing hiccup of the day.

Indeed, if not for that pesky tire snafu, Hamlin might’ve been breathing down the necks of Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson in the home stretch. And perhaps, just perhaps, a deja vu face-off with the HMS driver might’ve been on the cards.

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