"I plan on being selfish": Denny Hamlin plans on prioritizing own race ahead of helping Bubba Wallace's playoff hopes

Not only did NASCAR handing Denny Hamlin a massive engine penalty take him out of regular season championship contention, it also hurt his playoffs scenario. Hamlin was docked 75 points from his regular season score and 10 from his playoff campaign as a result of his L2 level penalty.

Because of this, he was asked on Friday whether he'd be forced to be less kind to his teammates like Ty Gibbs, or his own driver, Bubba Wallace. The 23XI Racing driver, who is winless so far this season, is currently a spot below the cut-line, trailing Ross Chastain by a single point.

But in the remaining two races of the regular season, at Daytona and at Darlington, Denny Hamlin claimed he would prefer to be selfish first and kind later.

"If you're speaking about tomorrow night, I mean, I plan on being selfish anyway. I was racing Tyler Reddick for the regular season. But really I've got so many people around me on points now that I just need to get the best result that I possibly can. If there's opportunity to help my teammates I definitely will as long as it's not a detriment to what I believe will be my result to that point," Hamlin said. [11:15]

Following this, a reporter mentioned to Denny Hamlin that there are still 14 playoff points to be had. He was then asked if he feels more confident regarding those points given the upcoming racetracks on the schedule.

"Certainly if we can get hot and win some races it won't hurt as bad. We could get back to a decent number for playoff points for the first round, second round, third round. But yeah there's always an opportunity and certainly the tracks line up nicely for us," Hamlin said.

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Denny Hamlin has no room for error left in his bid to win elusive NASCAR championship

Losing 10 playoff points after the massive penalty has certainly caused harm to the Joe Gibbs Racing driver's championship campaign.

And because of this playoff points deficit, Denny Hamlin knows that he cannot afford to make mistakes anymore.

“We have to figure out our best path forward now and it’s just win, finish races to the best of our ability. Obviously, our room for error is gone now, and we just hope to get through the rounds," he said as per Sportsnaut.

It's worth mentioning that despite his season getting off to a remarkable start - 3 wins in the first 11 races (the most he's had since 2010) - Denny Hamlin has remained winless since.

Although he had a run of top 5 finishes post his win in Dover, four in a row, from Sonoma onwards, Hamlin has suffered through a series of unfortunate finishes. In fact, in the last four races, he seemed to recover with a couple of top 5 finishes.

But now with the massive penalty handed to him, that has shaken his regular as well as playoff season, it'll be interesting to see how Denny Hamlin recovers in the races to come.