The strong track turned a little awry today. Denny Hamlin had a solid streak of top-five runs at Kansas ever since the Next Gen car debuted. His average finish of 2.8 was amazing—until it took a toll at the race today. What was supposed to be a battle with his old Hendrick Motorsports foe turned out to be one with his own team’s faults. The Joe Gibbs Racing team slipped up during pit stops, and Hamlin is not silent about it.

A lot of playoff drivers expected good things from the Hollywood Casino 400. However, almost all of them faced an issue or more—point leader Kyle Larson blew his right rear tire on lap 19. But even with his 2023 rival cleared out of the way, Denny Hamlin was not safe. He battled hard, posting a 4th-place finish after stage 1. But after that, pit road troubles emerged for the No. 11 Toyota driver. On lap 105, the JGR team suffered a slow pit stop.

The right rear tire was not going properly, and the 11 team jacked the car back up and got the tire back on. But that was not the end of the story for Denny Hamlin, as the same issues cropped up and stuttered his pace. After finishing 8th, he was visibly frustrated with the troubles: “Maybe the worst day ever. I don’t know, I’ve had some pretty bad days. But just a horrible day…came out 15th, 20th – then we had a loose wheel. Just a terrible, terrible day.”

The No. 11 car’s loose wheel at the end of stage 2 relegated it to the rear, thwarting precious points. Then the final blow after a Kyle Busch spin from the lead with 30 laps to go. Denny Hamlin chafed under the thought of losing the precious race win to Ross Chastain. “We should have won the race. We had the fastest car, but every time we get to the top 3, the caution comes out and we start 15th, 20th. So can’t show how fast your car is back in the pack. All you can do is keep making positions, back up the car over and over and over….Eventually, just run out laps and somebody else wins.”

Evidently, the 11 team was not functioning at its peak level today. However, the No. 11 crew chief took a defensive stance towards his team.

Balance of emotions within the team

Denny Hamlin’s frustration is understandable. As the strongest racer going into Kansas, these unforeseen pit road problems must have gotten on his nerves. He faced three phases of trouble during the Hollywood Casino 400: a slow pit stop during Stage 1, a loose wheel in Stage 2, and Kyle Busch’s misery. Even after that, Hamlin had a shot to win, but he parachuted from inside the top five to 16th on the following restart. That sealed his chances for at least a top-five finish. Despite Hamlin’s vocal complaints, his crew chief takes a more considerate outlook towards his team.

While acknowledging the problems, Chris Gabehart reasoned it was one of the “off days.” Gabehart said, “We had problems in one particular area of the car. But that had nothing to do with any kind of new or unique choreography. It’s the same stuff we’ve been doing all year. Just players have off days. I mean, you can see it in any pro sport.”

He added, “These are humans doing extraordinary things. They aren’t robots doing easy things. This is … this is hard. Humans don’t always perform their best and today was an off day for those guys. There’s a lot on the line and my group’s, on average, been the best pit crew on pit road all year. I’d put them up against anybody.”

The winning ambitions were axed, but the playoff spot is secure. Denny Hamlin could come away with a decent top-ten finish, although that meant breaking his flawless Kansas record.