Denny Hamlin was up against the odds to make the final 4 when his race car crashed during the practice run at Martinsville. Although the crew were able to work around the clock to get the #11 Toyota Camry ready for the race, Hamlin had his task cut out for him. But despite starting the race on the tail end of the field, the JGR driver gave it his all.

But Hamlin’s all wasn’t good enough to see him through to the championship race in Phoenix. The #11 car was probably good for finishing inside the top 5 places, and that is exactly what they got. Even Hamlin came clean on the reason behind his team falling short on their objective, and the simple answer was lack of speed.

Hamlin couldn’t replicate his practice run speeds during the race

Before the JGR driver crashed into the wall and crushed the back bumper of his race car, he was on a roll. Out of all the cars running in the practice session, the #11 Toyota Camry was the quickest. Well, the team did carry speed into the race as well, as Hamlin made his way forward, passing multiple cars in the stage 1 run.

By the time stage 2 came in, the team banked on a different strategy, just like race winner Ryan Blaney. It rewarded him with a second-place finish and crucial points. However, when the field recycled after the stage 2 pit stops, it was evident that the #11 Toyota Camry wasn’t able to hold off the charge by Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.

Denny Hamlin didn’t shy away from highlighting the lack of race-winning speed in a post-race interview with FrontStretch. “Just more speed, more capability. I just felt like our balance was pretty good; we were just not fast enough to run with the other cars. Obviously we struggled with speed today, and that was not ideal, but we just gotta get better.” For a third year in a row, in the Next-Gen era, the veteran driver hasn’t been able to make it past the Round of 8.

He was also asked if his race car felt any different after the repair and not opting for the backup. To which he replied, “I’m not really sure; I mean, certainly things change when you get out there and put all 36 cars out there and rubber that’s on the track. Conditions, you know from sun to night so you never know. Our car was good yesterday, but still, it looked like the Hendrick cars and the 12 really just were a little faster.”

Not only  Denny Hamlin but his teammate Christopher Bell couldn’t make the cut. His last lap antics were scanned by NASCAR officials, and he was credited with a P22 finish, the last car on the lead lap.

Elton Sawyer explains why Bell was penalized

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A single point separated both William Byron and Christopher Bell. Unable to show any real speed through the race, the driver of the #20 car made the most of the last lap chaos. He threaded the needle going three wide, passing two cars at one. However, after pulling off the big move, he lost control of his race car and rammed it into the safer barriers.

It was almost identical to Ross Chastain’s hailmelon move from back in 2022. Although there’s no specific rule against this style of finish, it falls under safety violations. Explaining the grounds of this ruling, NASCAR’s Senior VP of Competition, Elton Sawyer, said, “We’ve met with the industry; we met with the drivers, and everyone to man decided that was not something we could tolerate. We didn’t want that move to be accepted.”

“We had language in the rulebook. It is a safety violation, and when we saw the 20 car, that’s exactly where we went. We looked at it a couple of different times just to make sure, and that was the call. And that’s to protect our competitors as well, our fans.” Sawyer said via NASCAR’s official Instagram account.

Not just Hamlin and Bell, even the star drivers like Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson weren’t able to make it past the Round of 8. Ryan Blaney and William Byron joined Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick and the four drivers will have a shot to win the title next weekend at Phoenix Raceway.