"Give Kyle a tremendous amount of credit": Denny Hamlin lauds former teammate's role in thrilling COTA finish

Following the thrilling end to Sunday's race, Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts on the same in the Actions Detrimental podcast. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who remained out of contention for the win towards the end, spoke about his current teammate and his former teammate's nail-biting battle in the last few laps.

During the last 5 laps of the Cup race at COTA, Kyle Busch defended his lead from the advances of Christopher Bell, who eventually passed him. The race got even more exciting when William Byron and Tyler Reddick also joined in the mix, with the four cars racing bumper-to-bumper at one point with minutes left before the race ended.

Speaking about the thrilling end at COTA, Denny Hamlin lauded the quality of racing and highlighted Kyle Busch's role in it. He said:

"It was a great race and certainly I think Kyle Busch said it best, kind of with Bell's patience there, Kyle was certainly trying all he could to hold him off. I mean, you got to give Kyle a tremendous amount of credit. I think that he had the fourth best car at the time while he was leading. He held on the lead way longer than he should have. But I mean just a masterclass by all four drivers. There was contact but nothing egregious. Everyone was able to stay in it." [38:27 onwards]

Hamlin remarked that the ending to the race in COTA had good contact with multiple drivers going for the win and nobody spinning out. In his eyes, the drivers put on 'a fabulous show' which was 'very entertaining' for the viewers.

It's worth mentioning that unlike his current teammate, Christopher Bell, who has had two wins in three races this season, and his former teammate, Kyle Busch, who was in contention for a win at COTA, Denny Hamlin hasn't enjoyed a good run so far.

The #11 driver's best result this season was at Atlanta, where he came home with a 6th-place finish. Apart from that, Hamlin has two finishes outside the top 20 in the other two races.

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Denny Hamlin shares his thoughts on NASCAR's Playoff Committee initiative

Denny Hamlin (#11 Joe Gibbs Racing National Debt Relief Toyota) speeds out of turn 20 during the NASCAR Cup Series Echo Park Automotive Grand Prix - Source: Getty

With NASCAR's playoff format coming under fire yet again at the end of 2024, the governing body devised a Playoff Committee. While the committee reportedly has no 'agenda', it has reportedly been created to strike the right balance between the racing product and the entertainment value derived from it.

This was something that Denny Hamlin also echoed recently, claiming that NASCAR is 'looking to strike a balance' between those two aspects. He described:

"I think that the pendulum kind of swung inside of entertainment probably a little bit too far over the years with how the playoff format plays out."

Hamlin added that NASCAR would try to get it back to rewarding drivers that perform well throughout the season.