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Denny Hamlin secured a spot in the NASCAR playoffs after a top-5 finish in the last race of the Round of 16 held at the world's fastest half-mile track in Tennessee, the Bristol Motor Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing team driver started his race in 8th place and ended the race in fourth place, winning his spot in the upcoming playoff races.
However, things were not easy for the Florida native, as he was six points shy of qualifying for the round of 12 ahead of the race. In the last two playoff races held at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen International, Denny Hamlin had failed to secure a spot in the top 20 with a 24th-place finish at Atlanta and 23rd at Watkins Glen and was on the verge of getting eliminated.
The #11 Chevy driver was also on the bubble with his teammate Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Harrison Burton. However, Hamlin's experience and tire strategy paid off at Bristol Motor Speedway as he managed to go through to the next round of playoffs.
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The #11 Toyota driver's best time was 15.369 seconds with a top speed of 125.666 mph and was 0.127 seconds behind the leader, Alex Bowman. Since stage 1 of the race, Denny Hamlin displayed his commanding attitude. He moved up two places and finished stage 1 in sixth place, earning five points, helping him to stay in the playoffs.
By the end of stage 2, Denny Hamlin was in third place behind his teammate, Martin Truex Jr.. The #11 Toyota driver earned eight points in this stage and finished the race in fourth place, and marked his best result since Darlington Raceway's seventh-place finish.
Denny Hamlin "looking forward" to the upcoming races after earning a spot in the Round of 12
After securing a spot in the Round of 12, the Joe Gibbs Racing team driver is satisfied with his performance at Bristol Motor Speedway. He was in third place, but his racing teammate Bubba Wallace edged him out in the final stage and finished in third place. In a post-race interview, the #11 Toyota driver expressed his views on his top-5 finish and said:
"My aspirations was to win it, you know, but it looked like the #5 there just was better than all of us. Yeah, solid car. I thought we were really good towards the middle stages. And then there at the end just got too loose and couldn't hang on to kind of what we had there. But overall top five day. Good stage points, kind of in the mix," Hamlin said.
After having a hard time in the first two playoff races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen, Denny Hamlin changed his tire strategy. Expressing hope for positive results in upcoming races, he said:
"Certainly I mean, it's all offense from this point forward, so yeah, we're going to Kansas, the track we've been really really good at. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the rest of the run," he added (0:47).
After this top-five finish at Bristol, Denny Hamlin earned 46 points and moved from 13th place to 6th place in the playoff standings with a buffer of seven points.
