Denny Hamlin Makes HMS Teammate Pay for Chase Elliott’s Painful Blow

Overturning his disappointments at Texas and Talladega this Sunday, Denny Hamlin returned to victory lane at The Monster Mile. With Kyle Larson battling on his bumper, extending Joe Gibbs Racing’s tally to four wins in an early season tug-of-war with Hendrick Motorsports, Denny’s final stage “mirror-driving” masterclass received plenty of attention. But critics, as usual, complain about Hamlin’s victories being aided by some “dirty air” tactics.

Regardless, Denny’s 54th win was barely a fluke. Moreover, this wasn’t the first NextGen race to go down to the wire because of some aero-blocking. And on a day when its master, Kyle Larson, fell victim to the grueling defensive strategy, he might have Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott to blame for his third unsatisfying podium finish in the 2024 season.

Denny Hamlin hammers back after back-to-back disappointment

Two weeks ago at Texas, Chase Elliott bested Hamlin with only two laps to go as the #11 spun out of podium contention from another ‘controversial’ final-stage restart. Ironically, a Kyle Larson-induced caution caused the caution flag to emerge before this incident. Regardless, Elliott broke a 32-race winless streak at the Texas race. Hence, it is unlikely that Kyle Larson would hold his disappointments too much to heart, considering his Hendrick teammates’ encouraging accomplishments on that day. However, in the post-Dover edition of Actions Detrimental, Hamlin reveals he had some plans after the #11 team’s fallout a few weeks ago.

The final stage at Dover saw two cautions. The major one took out team members from both JGR and HMS, with Christopher Bell and William Byron, respectively, ending their day alongside 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace. Kyle Larson, rolling off P1, had his best chance to put some positive distance between himself and Hamlin on this final unscheduled restart, But as fate would have it, Denny would hold on to retake the lead from Larson, starting from the inside line at Dover.

Denny explained his somewhat equal perspective, restarting from the front row with 63 laps to go, “So we didn’t have many laps on our tires, and at that point, I started on the inside, second. And second, typically has been a tough place to start at Dover. But the gearing is kind of wonky where first gear is way too much at that track. Second gear is not enough, and NASCAR does that to try to keep our gear selections the same at all tracks. So they they want to do, if they can a one-size-fits-all when it comes to gearing. “

Making it clear that both himself and Larson restarted on the ‘first gear,’ Hamlin then elaborates on his successful overtake on Larson and the underlying motivations, stating, “And I think he (Larson) says he gets a hit from the #19 that when he starts to go, he gets hit… Then his wheels start spinning. And then I took off and ’cause I didn’t get hit from behind and it allowed us to be even at the start-finish line. I drive into the corner… Hold it down low, and I clear him and I’m like yes. Now I’m in control of the race so trust me I felt the pain of the other side of that when Chase Elliott did it to us you know a few weeks ago at Texas. 

“I mean that was the race. I was going to win that race for sure and then he did a great job on the restart the caution comes out and he’s six inches ahead of me. He controls the restart and that was game over after that,“ reminisced JGR’s latest race winner.

An overlooked Hendrick contender eyeing Kansas crown?

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Before qualifying for the Wurth 400 at P2 behind Kyle Busch, Larson held back-to-back P21 finishes at Texas and Talladega, coming off consecutive podium finishes at Richmond and Martinsville. The #5’s last win came at Vegas where he swept both stages and kicked off his advance at the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship. In comparison, Denny Hamlin’s season’s second race win came at Richmond, where Larson would finish P3. The following week at Martinsville would mark an incredible 1-2-3 sweep for Hendrick Motorsports, as William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott would round off the podium, in that order.

As the season moved next to Texas, Chase Elliott would redeem himself with his debut victory of the 2024 season, thanks a little in part to William Byron’s unintentional nudge on podium contender Ross Chastain on the final lap. At Talladega, Toyota returned to victory lane with Tyler Reddick and 23XI Racing. But the highest-finishing Hendrick Chevrolet last Sunday did not belong to either Byron, Larson, or Elliott.

It belonged to an often overlooked member of the Hendrick stable, who also fell victim to the aero-blocking and the inherent inability to pass a car without some much-needed clean air this past weekend – Alex Bowman. But this week, during his 300th Cup Series appearance, his battle was within the #48 team, as he finished stage 2 in the second position behind his colleague Kyle Larson. Larson effectively kept taking away Bowman’s air, resulting in the #48 eventually falling off the first 5 spots to end its race in P8. However, the highlight appeared at the onset of the Stage 2 break when defensive strategies on the part of the #5 would leave the #48 driver a little frustrated, causing him to vent to his team over the in-car radio.

As the only Hendrick driver still without a race win in 2024, will Bowman be the one to spoil Denny’s attempt to defend his Kansas crown with the season heading to the Sunflower state on May 5?