More trouble involving a NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contender in Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, this time it was Denny Hamlin who found trouble.
As Hamlin was exiting his pit stall on Lap 77, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs didn’t account for Hamlin exiting his stall, and left no exit room. As a result, Gibbs slammed into the right door of Hamlin with the left front of his car.
The collision caused significant damage to the right side of Hamlin’s car, and the crash ended the day for Gibbs. Here is a video of the pit road collision between the teammates:
This is the pit road collision that ended the day for Ty Gibbs, and damaged the right side of Denny Hamlin’s car. Hamlin hanging tough in fifth despite the pit road incident: pic.twitter.com/WKuqCZhm9D
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) September 24, 2023
After being checked and released from the infield care center, Gibbs admitted fault in the incident.
“Just ran out of room there. My fault, I guess,” Gibbs explained. “Just got to keep going and keep fighting. I feel like, we’ve been bringing really fast cars to the track every week.”
Hamlin opted to not come back to pit road before the green flag after the incident, as he didn’t want to lose his track position. At the time of this story, the call was a good one, as Hamlin sits second in the running order on Lap 107.
It looks like Hamlin, and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team dodged a bullet early in Sunday’s race.
