The repaved Iowa Speedway spelled diverse fortunes. While past winners and performers at the short track surged to the front row, others faltered. The rear half of the field surprisingly also contained Denny Hamlin. He underwent a series of hiccups on his No. 11 Toyota, and things came to a head in the final stage.

Hamlin’s lackluster performance starkly contrasts his history on other short tracks. The repaving may have altered his hopes. Yet, he pieced together his broken fortunes yesterday, although overall his prospects looked bleak.

Denny Hamlin reflects on a sour Iowa day

After a blown engine dashed his hopes at Sonoma Raceway, a similar fate awaited Hamlin at Iowa Speedway. Owning two short-track wins at Bristol and Richmond, betting brands projected Denny Hamlin as one of the Iowa favorites. But soon after the race started, the No. 11 dropped through the ranks and snuggled with the rear among the 30s.

Denny Hamlin could gain track position and five points in stage 2. Then in the final stage, a disastrous melee sealed the driver’s hopes further. In his weekly ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast, Hamlin reflected on his helpless situation. “I was trying to race but I was in handcuffs. You know, I can’t go any faster; if I could go any faster, I would’ve gone a lap down in the first place. But the leader passes me, I’m like, ‘ (sigh) Just do everything you can to stay in this lucky dog spot.’ And I didn’t.”

Yet Denny Hamlin highlighted some positives that he gleaned from his unlucky day. “But we were able to wave around. So it was one of those races where the finish probably would have been way worse had the cautions not fell in the correct spot when we pretty much all day long…you know, I was able to wave when I needed to, I was able to get the lucky dog when I needed to.”

On lap 261, Daniel Suarez hooked into Kyle Larson’s left rear. The Hendrick Motorsports driver spun and crashed, collecting Denny Hamlin as well. That worsened an already malfunctioning No. 11 car, and multiple repair pit stops did little to help. Yet somehow Hamlin could eke out a top-25 finish.

He elaborated on the latter part of the Iowa Corn 350. “When our car got destroyed, we were way slower than the field. But we still finished 24th because we trapped down other lapped cars for the whole race. And then my car was so slow after the crash, it allowed me to slowly bleed those spots as the race went on, and I didn’t finish in the 30s.”

Amidst his woes, Denny Hamlin faced some mysterious tire fall-off. This plagued the rest of the field as well.

Iowa faced a tire dilemma

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After the entertaining Bristol race earlier this year, Goodyear undertook a project to improve tire fall-off. Results were not so bright at the All-Star Race and took a turn for the worse at Iowa. During Friday’s practice session, five drivers encountered tire blow-outs – Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs, and Tyler Reddick. The final Cup race also had a similar story arranged.

A whopping seven cars had flat tires, and Denny Hamlin audibly called out the faulty tires. He radioed mid-race: “It’s like the tires are on backward.” His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr, suggested improvement to Goodyear. “Still probably could go softer. I know Goodyear hates when we talk about it like that, but I still think that would be better.” Truex managed a better spot than Hamlin, finishing 15th at the Iowa Corn 350.

Thus technical fallouts and Goodyear problems nagged Denny Hamlin at Iowa. Our star JGR driver would hopefully, rebound to a stellar win in the near future.