The opening weekend of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs could have certainly gone
better for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, but according to the driver of the No. 11 Mavis Tire Toyota it nearly went according to plan.
Hamlin entered the NASCAR Playoffs sixth in the reset point standings and after a disappointing 24th-place finish in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he now heads to Watkins Glen International next weekend 11 th in the standings, just two points above the cut line.
RELATED: Updated NASCAR Cup Series Driver Standings | Quaker State 400 Race Results
Riding around the back of the pack in an effort to avoid the expected carnage of superspeedway racing, Hamlin never made a charge to the front of the field and in the end was involved in a last-lap wreck that collected 11 cars in total.
Following the race, Hamlin told NBC Sports he was hoping to avoid getting caught up in a wreck and get 20 points out of the day’s efforts, both of which he came up short on when the checkered flag flew.
“I thought there at the very end we actually got the car where it kind of needed to be, but by then you’re kind of dealing with a log-jam – couple of lanes that are blocking things and you’re not going to go much of anywhere. I just tried to avoid the wrecks,” Hamlin said. “I was trying to get 20 points out of the day. That was my goal, just get 20 (points) however we could. Obviously, starting in the back didn’t help with that. Still, we did the best we could and got in a wreck that cost us probably eight to 10 spots or so.”
The driver of the No. 11 Mavis Tire Toyota entered the weekend fielding questions about 23XI
Racing – the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan – not signing NASCAR’s latest Charter deal, and things never truly got on track once cars officially hit the racetrack.
Hamlin’s on-track issues began in Saturday’s qualifying session when the No. 11 Toyota was over two seconds slower than Michael McDowell’s pole-winning speed, the slowest of the 38 cars to make a qualifying effort. The JGR team changed plug wires prior to the start of Sunday’s race, something that teammates Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr. did as well.
While three of the four JGR cars started Sunday’s race at the rear of the field for the unapproved adjustments, Hamlin was the only one to remain at the back of the pack for the entirety of the event. Gibbs, and Truex spent the majority of the event working through the field and vying for the lead at different parts of the race. Hamlin, on the other hand, stuck to his strategy.
With drivers jockeying for position in the draft around the 1.5-mile superspeedway lap after lap, Hamlin seemed content to just ride around in the back of the pack, waiting for the carnage to take place ahead of him. Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gabehart opted for safety instead of stage points, and at the end of the day, the team earned zero stage points.
The problem for Hamlin was that the field somehow kept their wits about them and put on a
spectacular show racing two- and three-wide, with only three cautions thrown for on-track incidents leading up to the final lap, none of which involved more than four cars.
By the time it was time to make his charge, it seemed too late for Hamlin and the No. 11 team. On the final green-white-checkered restart, Hamlin was still mired deep in the pack with no real opportunity to cut through the field and make a serious attempt at the win or a top-10 finish.
Despite the disappointing weekend, Hamlin argued almost everything went according to plan in Sunday’s 266-lap event.
“I did what I wanted to do, and that was lay in the back for most of the race and see what attrition came about, and again, (earn) 20 points any way possible. Came up a little short of that today,” he said.
For a team that seemed to be riding a momentum high about a month ago, Hamlin and the No.
11 JGR team have stumbled into the opening round of the Playoffs and struggled in their first outing Sunday in Atlanta.
The team was issued an L2 penalty by NASCAR on August 22 for violating an engine inspection rule following their win at Bristol earlier in the year, resulting in the loss of 75 driver and owner points, as well as the loss of 10 Playoff points. In addition, Hamlin has constantly been fielding questions about the Charter negotiations and his ownership role in 23XI Racing.
Although Sunday’s results did not quite live up to expectations and were not typical of Hamlin, the driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota is certainly not out of the Playoff hunt by any means. Hamlin sat on the pole and finished second at Watkins Glen last season, and he also went to Victory Lane the last time the series hit the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway, the next two races in the Round of 16.
