The YellaWood 500 playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway proved to be a lucky break for Denny Hamlin and the #11 team. The last time Hamlin raced at the 2.66-mile drafting track he got caught in a crash involving the Toyota drivers. It only went on to highlight the veteran driver’s trouble at the drafting track in the NextGen era. But last weekend’s race helped him avoid the big one and overturn his misfortunes of what could’ve been a disappointing result.

Hamlin was trying to play catch up to the leading pack after the stage 2 pit cycle. However, with just 5 laps to go in the race, Austin Cindric checked up after switching lanes and just couldn’t back into the draft, sparking a big one. It was the biggest wreck in NASCAR history that engulfed 28 drivers, which did include playoff drivers. But Denny Hamlin was nowhere to be found near the crash, and he managed to salvage a good points day, finishing in the top 10.

Although the veteran JGR driver finds himself 30 points above the cutline going into the Roval weekend, he isn’t out of the woods just yet. And going by Kevin Harvick’s words, Hamlin will have to do a better job apart from relying on luck to keep his championship hopes alive.

Kevin Harvick isn’t convinced of Denny Hamlin’s championship credentials

The #11 Toyota Camry started the race, placing P8 after a decent outing in the qualifying rounds. But that was the only time Hamlin was able to generate speed out of his race car. During the race, he struggled to make passes and settled for a mid-pack position throughout the two stages. For a playoff driver, he wasn’t even in the picture to contest for stage points.

It’s not that he was able to evade all the wrecks. Coming off the completion of the stage 2 run, Ryan Blaney’s crash saw his race car sustain damages to the front of his car. Which was one of the reasons he managed to avoid the big one.

“Watching the broadcast, I never knew where the 11 was; we never talked about it. But he was so far behind that he wasn’t even in that pack. Because he got into that stage 2 wreck, it knocked the hood up and got the splitter loose, and he wound up getting extremely lucky.” Kevin Harvick said this on episode 63 of the Happy Hour podcast.

Harvick also went on to highlight what Hamlin is missing in these crucial playoff races. “Look at William Byron coming into this round. I thought, man, these guys are not on the roll; he might not make it out of this round. They’ve come into this round and got that momentum, you’ve got to have the momentum and everything rolling for you at the right time. And when you look at luck, you’ve gotta have some good luck and Talladega, there was a lot of bad luck.”

If it wasn’t for the crash, Denny Hamlin would have found himself finishing somewhere outside of the top 15. This would put him in a situation ahead of the Bristol race, under pressure, hoping for a solid day. And this style of racing, especially in the playoffs, hasn’t fared well in the past. Kevin Harvick’s opinion wasn’t just limited to Hamlin’s performance; he also ripped into NASCAR’s inability to officiate the race after the big crash.

Harvick shares his take on the controversial DVP

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NASCAR has been consistently inconsistent with its decision-making when it comes to implementing DVP. This became a talking point after Ryan Blaney was ruled out of the race at Watkins Glen after being involved in a crash on lap 1. Josh Berry faced the brunt of this ruling in Kansas after he had flat tires. It looked like NASCAR decided to tow all the race cars to the garage that were unable to roll out on their own. But then Talladega happened.

A total of 28 race cars piled up in the biggest one in NASCAR history. While most of them were towed out to the garage area, the #9 and #14 received a rather special treatment. This created a ruckus among the fans and the NASCAR community on how the DVP was being twisted and tweaked from one race to another.

Kevin Harvick didn’t pull any punches in pinning the blame on NASCAR for the muckup and even shared a simple solution to this issue. “I have a lot of information, but I don’t think I need to go too far because it was a complete sh-t show…At this point, just tow all the cars back, put them in their pit stalls. It might have taken them less time than trying to see if somebody can get going and if somebody’s air-jacks would work.”

The road course race at Charlotte Roval awaits the playoff drivers, and it will be interesting to hear what Kevin Harvick’s take will be surrounding the hot topics next week.