My, oh my. Denny Hamlin, who had possession of the fastest lap in NASCAR Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway early in the session, suffered a stuck throttle on his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE. Heading into Turn 3, the car was barreling toward a certain demise. Hamlin was able to get the car to spin rear-first into the outside wall to avoid going head-on into the outside wall.
As a result, he likely saved himself from the hit hurting even more than it did.
RELATED: Practice Results NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville
That’s the good news. The bad news is that his No. 11 Toyota was junked, but his Joe Gibbs Racing team will make repairs, which will allow Hamlin to head into Sunday’s Xfinity 500, which is the final race of the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, with his primary car.
Here is a look at the incident that destroyed Hamlin’s primary car:
A look at the incident. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/Mcl4hNoFZw
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 2, 2024
After a trip to the infield care center, Hamlin described what transpired in the crash.
“We had just come back out. We had just made an adjustment to the car. It was doing everything it needed to do,” Hamlin recalled, “and I was maneuvering through the pack pretty well, and I went into Turn 3, and the car just didn’t slow down and the throttle hung on it. That certainly caught me off guard, but it happens. We just got unlucky.”
According to Hamlin’s crew chief Chris Gabehart, a chunk of tire rubber became lodged in the throttle body of his race car which caused the throttle to hang wide open.
“There were a lot of good things about this car, it fired off really fast and then was even better yet there and unfortunately just swallowed a big clump of rubber and got stuck in between the throttle stop and the throttle lever and hung the throttle,” Gabehart said. “So it wasn’t anything anybody did wrong, it was a freak deal and we’re going to do the best we can to get this fixed, but we gotta get some more information first.”
After dissecting the car, and seeing if the chassis was still square in a pass through the NASCAR inspection bay, Chris Gabehart opted to repair the primary car instead of moving to a backup car. Prior to the decision being made, Gabehart explained that fixing the primary would take less time than preparing the backup car.
With the crash, Hamlin will be unable to turn a qualifying lap in the session, which means he will have the worst pit selection of any of the eight Playoff contenders in Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, the Championship 4-deciding event. Hamlin, who is looking to advance to the Championship 4 says the practice crash will certainly hamper his weekend at Martinsville.
“I mean, it’s hard enough to win these races straight up,” Hamlin stated. “Even if you have the pole, it’s just hard to win. But you know, our battle is very much going to be uphill. If the backup car has any kind of speed like the primary I feel okay about it.”
Hamlin comes into the weekend outside of the Playoff cutline by 18 points, and heading into the race weekend, the veteran racer had said that while he was mathematically still able to clinch his Championship 4 berth by way of points, he was approaching the race as a must-win.
“Certainly, the chances of getting in on points now are done,” Hamlin explained. “We just have to figure out a way to win the race.”
With the practice crash, Hamlin will have a hard time gaining any Stage Points early in Sunday’s race, which will now move this to seemingly a sure must-win situation for Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
Hamlin wound up third-fastest in the session in his primary car behind Martin Truex Jr., and Corey LaJoie, who turned faster laps than Hamlin after Hamlin had crashed.
