Last weekend at the Shriners Children’s 500, Christopher Bell snatched a hat-trick of race wins. While the rest of the field banked on the option tire to make sizeable gains the No. 20 car was the class of the field. But, Bell’s win at the Desert mile was anything but easy. He had his teammate Denny Hamlin on the outside and Kyle Larson on his back bumper in the last two laps. But, despite riding the high line and a fire off well on the restarts Hamlin couldn’t seal the deal.
Even the superspeedway-style push from his on-track rival Kyle Larson wasn’t enough for him to grab the checkered flag. 0.049 seconds was the margin of difference between the two JGR cars. Now that the dust is settled from the race, Denny Hamlin was asked about what would he change about his last 2 lap shootout with Bell in Phoenix. And his reply wasn’t a straightforward one, rather he went back and shed light on the Xfinity Series race finish that Aric Almirola won in a controversial manner.
Call it coincidence or fate, but both the Xfinity and Cup Series races had a carbon copy finish. The only difference was the third element Larson played a role in Bell’s victory. Ideally, Justin Allgaier should’ve won the race with a commanding lead but with 4 laps to go caution light lit up. And just like that Allgaier could see his win slip away in an overtime finish. Aric Almirola driving the No. 19 car headed straight for the No. 7 JRM car and this allowed Alex Bowman to thread a move for the lead.
Although the HMS driver took the white flag, the race was far from done. Almirola quickly ducked down on the inside lane, mounted a charge coming off turn 4, shipped the No. 15 car into the outside wall and crossed the start-finish line. Poor Hamlin was in a similar spot as Bowman and he knew he just didn’t have good enough options to contest against Bell’s charge on the inside lane.
“I watched the Xfinity race, Alex gave Aric 2-3 car widths like, ‘I’m giving you room to race. Let’s try to do this as fairly as possible.’ It cost him, I think he just gave Aric too big of a window, and he gave him an out to do what he did. Not that I’m saying it’s wrong, right or whatever. In the Xfinity race, Alex should have just ran the bottom and forced Aric to knock him out of the way. That would have, you gave him an opportunity to do it somewhat cleanish.” Hamlin said this on the Actions Detrimental Podcast.
“When you’re in there side-by-side and you enter side-by-side. This race track is plenty wide, but if the bottom guy wants to wash you up into the marbles, there’s not much you can do about it. It won’t even look egregious, but you can only run so wide on the exit of these corners because of how the marbles are. I was just in a horrible leverage spot, he took advantage.” Hamlin added.
NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Qualifying Nov 9, 2024 Avondale, Arizona, USA NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin 11 during qualifying for the Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway. Avondale Phoenix Raceway Arizona USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xGaryxA.xVasquezx 20241109_gav_sv5_003
Well, Hamlin didn’t got rammed into the wall like Bowman did. And let’s just say he wasn’t thrilled about being roughed up, especially when he gave Almrila the space to race him clean coming off the final corner. “I would’ve hoped that he would’ve given me a lane on exit but he just exited like I wasn’t there. I figured my best bet was going to the outside there trying to get off the corner. And there was no lane there anymore. Bummer but you’ll have that in big-time auto racing.”
In retrospecting and dissecting the two races, Denny Hamlin had a clear idea of how differently he would race in overtime.
Stick to the inside lane on the final lap shootout
In both races, the driver who had the command on the inside lane had the final laugh. Although both Hamlin and Bowman had space to sprint off to the finish line, by no means their rivals would allow them that luxury. Now that the veteran JGR driver has learned his lesson, he’s formulated a plan to tackle a similar situation that might unfold in the upcoming races.
“There was an opportunity on the white flag lap when he slid me in the middle of the 1 & 2. He cleared me for a brief moment. I could’ve said, I don’t want the outside, I’m just gonna be on your bumper here entering turn 3. Had I do it all over again and I could see the grand picture know that I had plenty of space behind me with the #5, I would’ve said – Okay I’m not gonna put myself on the outside. I’m not gonna win on the outside, he’s just gonna shove me up.” Hamlin explained.
Well, the good thing is the JGR driver will have plenty of opportunities with traditional oval tracks lined up in the schedule next. Who knows, Hamlin might get even with his teammate this weekend at Las Vegas, a track where he last his last win came back in 2021. Not to mention he’s looking to snap a 29-race winless streak, so there’s all the encouragement he needs going into the Vegas weekend.
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