You would often hear the phrase that NASCAR is a team sport. While the driver is the one doing the bidding on the racetrack, it takes a complete team effort to get the best outcomes. You need the crew chief to draw out the plans, the spotter to guide the driver well on the race day, and a pit crew that is in tandem with the driver.

The pit crew arguably is perhaps the vital cog in this team setup that can make or break the driver’s fortunes on the day. Unfortunately, Denny Hamlin had to suffer the latter feeling after his pit crew dropped the ball during the playoff race at Kansas Speedway. Not just once, the #11 crew had multiple instances that hampered Hamlin’s run on the day. Forcing him to settle for a P8 when he could’ve contested for a win.

He did sound off after the race when asked about his experience on the day: “I’m not in it mentally; I can tell you that.” He even compared his 23XI Racing pit crew dynamics to his JGR team and asked his team to do a better job next time around.

Denny Hamlin cannot afford more mistakes

A streak of bad luck or curse has struck Hamlin and the #11 team ever since the racing resumed after the Olympic break. They were handed an L2 penalty that saw them lose 10 playoff points; at the same time, he got involved in the public battle against NASCAR over the charter deal. Everything that could go wrong for him off-track started going south, but this ill-fate managed to breach his on-track outcome with a pit-road issue at Kansas.

The #11 pit crew is arguably the best in the business. Remember, they helped Hamlin snatch the win at Richmond with a clutch performance? But for some reason, they weren’t on their A-game in a crucial playoff race. Interestingly, Hamlin even drew parallels with how limited resources his pit crews at 23XI Racing can deliver good results.

“We’re not as deep personnel-wise at Joe Gibbs Racing is. So I don’t know how many pit crew members JGR has—50? 60? like they supply tons of pit crews, and so they’ve got a huge pool where. Just a few years ago at 23XI, we hired 10 guys; that’s all we could get, and feel comfortable with with 10 guys. So that’s 5 for each team, and so there was no depth. Over time, we build some depth in our teams and we continue to improve that.” Hamlin said this on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

The good news for Denny Hamlin and the #11 team is that they can get back on track and make amends at Talladega this weekend. Plus 11 above the cutline is not a bad place for Hamlin to enter the second race of Round of 12.

Talladega is going to be a track position race, says Hamlin

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The playoffs so far have proven to be a points race rather than seeing the contenders battle it out for a win. Chris Buescher won the road course race at Watkins Glen, and Ross Chastain, another non-playoff driver, got back to winning ways at Kansas. It goes to show that the playoff drivers are playing conservatively, not risking anything until they are up against the wall.

Christopher Bell desperately trying to gain stage points and wrecking was an example of that last weekend. But is anything going to change at Talladega? Will teams play around with strategy any differently or just stick to the basics? Going by Hamlin’s words, the playoff drivers will be out on the hunt for playoff points once again to safeguard their advance to the next round.

“I mean, you’re gonna see everyone battling to try to get the stage points and win the race. It’s one where certainly you’re not gonna have varying strategies. But it’s going to be a track position race in my opinion, and you wanna race up towards the front and control the race,” the veteran JGR driver explained.

The last time around Hamlin raced at Talladega, he was involved in a big crash that involved Toyota drivers. Surely he would not want to end up with yet another DNF this time around.