Denny Hamlin will have to do it all in Martinsville if he is to reach Championship 4 and pursue a first Cup Series title. His playoff run has been marred by various issues, which have left him 18 points below the cutline entering Sunday’s Round of 8 elimination race. While he has 54 wins, a Championship title continues to elude him, and going by what happened at Martinsville, that drought may yet continue.

Drivers were given an extended practice session to get a better feel for the options and the track at Martinsville. Team #11 clocked the fastest time initially in the practice sessions, testing Goodyear’s new tire compound for the race. However, events took a turn for the worse soon.

As Hamlin went into turn 3, his car spun sideways, and the rear rammed into the wall, calling it a day for him, meaning he did not have a driveable car for the qualifying, putting him automatically at the back of the grid in the race. Later, his crew chief revealed the reason behind the crash.

Denny Hamlin took the car back to the JGR garage and slammed his helmet on the roof in frustration. When the mechanics and engineers at JGR looked for the cause, it was found that a chunk of rubber got lodged in the throttle body. According to Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gabehart, “Unfortunately, just swallowed a big clump of rubber and got stuck in between the throttle stop and the throttle lever and hung the throttle. It wasn’t anything anybody did wrong. It’s just a freak deal.”

Apparently, ahead of Hamlin’s crash, it was the Joey Logano in his #22 that ran laps, possibly having some rubber stripped off from their tires that got lodged in Hamlin’s throttle. But, it’s not confirmed if that was the case. However, Logan was left surprised when he was informed of Hamlin’s crash.

After the practice session, Joey Logano seemed impressed with the new tire compound and he was asked by NASCAR journalist Matt Weaver if he faced some chucking problems too that led to Hamlin’s crash. Joey Logano, unaware of what happened to the #11 car, asked, “What happened?” To this Weaver explained, “The #11 he crashed cause there’s a chunk of rubber, he got into the throttle body, hung his throttle, that’s what caused his crash.” It felt like this information caught Logano off guard as momentarily he was at a loss for words and said, “No kidding..it’s news to me…oh…oh…that’s concerning after hearing that.” 

NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin, in his two-decade-long Cup Series career, is yet to win the Cup Series. Hamlin, since the elimination format was introduced in 2014, has never failed to qualify for a playoff and has reached the top eight, 10 times since then, out of which four have been championship 4 appearances.

The #11 hoped 2024 would be his year, but the way the playoffs have progressed, it looks like an uphill battle. In the qualifying in Atlanta, he had issues with the spark plug and had to start at the rear. He struggled throughout the race and was involved in a last-lap crash. At Watkins Glen, he spun in practice and had a crash on the opening lap. Later, he continued but was involved in a crash later in the race.

At Kansas, pit road issues popped up and he was collected in a crash at Talladega. His misery continued in the Round of 8 in Las Vegas, where he had a slow pit stop, his car was damaged and a slow stop dropped him back in the field. Speaking to NBC after the Martinsville crash, Hamlin said, “The car didn’t slow down. The throttle hung on me and apparently (crew chief Chris Gabehart) sent me a picture and there’s a huge chunk of rubber that’s in the throttle body that hung wide open.”

Apart from starting last on the grid, the #11 will have the last pick of pit stalls. When asked whether he can from behind to win, Hamlin answered, “I hope so. I think if the car has got the ability to maneuver like this one did, then you got a chance. The unfortunate part is we don’t get to pick a pit stall. We’re probably going to be right in the middle, in a terrible spot on pit road. Track position is key here.”

The task is difficult and if you look at history it appears improbable. The last driver to win beyond a top-20 starting spot was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who started 23rd  in October 2014. At Martinsville, the deepest a winner has ever started is 36th by Kurt Busch in October 2002. Hamlin will have to upset massive odds if his championship hopes have to remain intact.

In the Martinsville race, Joey Logano will start from P12, whereas Martin Truex Jr. will start from the pole, followed by Chase Elliot in P2 and William Byron wrapping the top 3. Denny Hamlin will start the race in the 37th position.

Only two spots remain up for grabs in the Championship 4. Christopher Bell is 29 points above the cutline and William Byron holds the final spot and is seven points above the cutline. Both Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick have secured their spots thanks to their wins at Las Vegas and Homestead respectively. However, not all hopes are lost for the #11, as they can still bounce back.

Can Denny Hamlin still win Martinsville?

Goodyear and NASCAR’s purpose with the new tire compound is to up their short track package. After only 8 lead changes at the recent Bristol race, NASCAR is hoping for higher numbers of passes on their shortest short track. And with Logano also iterating that the fall-off is more than before, track position might not hold that much significance, and on top of that, Hamlin has 500 laps to gain positions.

In addition to that, team #11 has also claimed that their Martinsville car is really fast and so that too will aid Hamlin to quickly move up the pack and stay there.

This is the reason why Hamlin was so bummed out for missing out on qualification as his teammate took the top spot. Hamlin, post the practice lap crash, said, “The car was phenomenal. It was doing everything it needed to do. We had just made a change and then went back out to assess the change and thought it was right where it needed to be.” This is also the reason why the team and Gabehart have decided to repair their primary car instead of bringing out the secondary one.

Gabehart said, “Most of the (rear) clip looks fine, we think. We’re gonna go take a couple measurements here in a minute, and then it would just be replacing some body panels and a bumper and getting back to it. There were a lot of good things about this car. Obviously, it fired off really fast and then was even better yet there…we’re going to do the best we can to get this fixed.”

So the task ahead for Hamlin is massive. Can he overcome the daunting challenge to keep his championship hopes alive?