Denny Hamlin was racing hard and was in second place with only seven of the 160 laps left. He had just passed Alex Bowman but was still about two seconds behind the leader, Ryan Blaney. Before Blaney took the lead with 44 laps remaining, Hamlin had been in front for the most laps, leading for 31.
Hamlin started to catch up to Blaney over the next few laps, but he couldn’t get close enough to overtake him. Blaney ended up winning the race by 1.312 seconds.
One key moment in the race was Hamlin’s second-to-last pit stop, where he lost nine positions. He spent the rest of the race trying to recover from that setback.
“Never lose a race, just always run out of time, right? That’s just part of it. Track position is such a big thing,” Hamlin said. “When the (Blaney) jumped (to pit early) on that stage that we won, that put them in front of us.
“Certainly was going to be hard to pass. Just not enough laps of green there toward the end but hats off to them. Great run.”
Hamlin mentioned that Blaney’s quick starts during the three restarts in the final 38 laps made it hard for him to catch up.
“He kept great pace up there towards the front. Really hard for me to even try to get close to reeling him in,” he said. “Shame we couldn’t get to Victory Lane. Another day.”
Even though Hamlin didn’t win at Pocono, finishing in second place was a positive change from his recent poor results.
In the five races before this one, Hamlin had finished 24th or worse four times. His best finish in that period was 12th in Nashville. He also had an engine failure in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on lap 2 at Sonoma, California.
“We were in such a terrible slump. We were terrible for a month and a half or so in our finishes, not in our performance,” he said. “Feels good to have at least a solid day leaving here.
“I only care about winning, but still this kind of rebound is something that at least makes you feel a little better.”
Hamlin did improve his position in the race for the regular season championship.
With only five races left before the playoffs, he is still in fourth place in the points standings but is now only 20 points behind the new leader, Chase Elliott.
