Hamlin had a good car coming into the race and grabbed the pole position in the qualifying rounds. Moreover, he was among the frontrunners to go for the win at the event, battling it out with Tyler Reddick. However, an unexpected spin put a damper on his plans. Denny Hamlin’s aspiration to win at Phoenix Raceway took a big blow after he spun in turn one, coming off the restart. The driver seemed to be have come off a bit loose, which led to a contact with the #45’s left rear that saw Hamlin spin out. However, the only saving grace for Denny Hamlin is that, despite the incident, he was able to make a clean stop without hitting the wall or the oncoming traffic.

Brad Keselowski, who was almost onto Hamlin while he lost control, expertly navigated his way through. Had this not been the case and had the #11 driver failed to avoid further contacts, the Phoenix Raceway would’ve surely been littered with debris and multiple early exits. Fortunately, Hamlin came out unscathed and even managed to catapult himself to an acceptable finish.

Denny Hamlin churns out a decent result despite his wrecking incident

Carrying on the momentum from the qualifying rounds to the main race, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, with his #11 car, was a man on a mission in search of his first win since The Clash. The Toyotas were dominant throughout the day and were quicker in comparison to the Fords and Chevys. However, streaks of restarts after the Stage 2 break seemed to have offset Hamlin’s focus and thus allowed the mistakes to creep in.

In his bid to defend his leading position from the likes of Tyler Reddick and William Byron, the veteran driver stretched his run and spun off the race track. For onlookers, all the hard work and the laps led in the race seemed to be in vain, but not on Hamlin’s watch. Soon after he took to racing, he jumped serious positions from the back of the grid and found himself in the #16 position.

Coming to the end of the race, adding one final push, he managed to carve out a #11 finish. Not the desirable results he wanted, but indeed, it was a good bounce-back from what could have been a total disaster. Speaking to Frontstretch after the race, Hamlin explained the struggle of coming back off the pack after his wreck. “It’s difficult for sure the car put off a big week and that’s just part of it. You can certainly think that if you had a good car, you can make ground.”

Read More: Christopher Bell Claims 7th Cup Series Career Win With Resounding Phoenix Victory 

Emphasizing further on the Toyota Camry’s capability at the racetrack, Hamlin explained that had it not been for his mistake, his car could have been in the top three finish.

Hamlin is not too disappointed with his performance at Phoenix

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Apart from the single yet vital mistake that cost Hamlin his race, the #11 car was a real contender to win the race. Speaking of dominating the racetrack, the Toyotas had only led 15 laps in the last four Phoenix races, but in today’s race, they led the charge of the grid for more than 244 laps. They were indeed formidable against the Chevys and Fords, and the results show just that.

Acknowledging the positives from the race, Hamlin went on to add, “I thought we had a top three car obviously, but there was always someone a little bit faster than us at times of the race. So, it’s not too disappointing because we didn’t run bad, so today was about learning.”

With Toyota’s back in contention to win races, Denny Hamlin will be feeling optimistic about repeating today’s best bit in the next race at Bristol Motor Speedway and getting a solid result.