"It makes sense": NASCAR insider defends Denny Hamlin's Atlanta strategy following Kyle Petty's criticism

Denny Hamlin finished 24th at Atlanta, the first race of the playoffs. Following the race, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver spoke about his strategy and mindset heading into the race.

Hamlin said that he was trying to get 20 points out of the race, and that was what he wanted to achieve in any way he could. It's worth mentioning that Denny Hamlin was hit with a massive penalty weeks before the playoffs by NASCAR, who took away 10 playoff points from the #11 driver.

However, at Atlanta, his goal to get the points suffered after he got into a wreck and finished outside the top-20. Hamlin's strategy was massively criticized by former NASCAR driver and analyst Kyle Petty.

NASCAR journalist Jordan Bianchi, though, defended the #11 team's decision to aim for the points at Atlanta, saying in the Teardown podcast (30:35):

"I don't have a problem with it. He played the numbers. You look statistically at this race, and I'm not talking Daytona or Talladega, I'm talking about Atlanta since reconfiguration. They have carnage filled race where you see a lot of big accidents, a lot of guys taken out, happens continually.

"You play the percentages and that team plays, they're analytical, they have to play the numbers. You look at the numbers and it overwhelmingly says that this is going to be an attrition filled race, let's be smart about this and put ourselves in a spot and then pick our way forward, it makes sense."

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Denny Hamlin has only one win at road courses in his entire NASCAR Cup career

Following the first race of the playoffs, Denny Hamlin revealed that he was expecting a "bigger wreck" and wanted to play the numbers. He spoke about the Atlanta Raceway having a narrow track that gets logjammed.

He touched on his balance not being great in the first half of the race. But given that the #11 team had "already made our bed just to avoid wrecks", it didn't matter as much.

After his 24th place finish now, Denny Hamlin is 11th in the playoff standings, only one point ahead of hte cutline. The next two races in the Round of 16 are at Watkins Glen, a road course, and Bristol, a short track.

It's worth mentioning that Hamlin hasn only one win at road courses in his Cup career. Interestingly, that win came at Watkins Glen, but it was nearly a decade ago, in 2016.

In the Next Gen era, Denny Hamlin has only finished inside the top-5 at a road course once, Watkins Glen in 2023. All his other finishes in the Next Gen car at road courses have been outside the top-10.

So it will be interesting to see how the JGR veteran fares in the next round of the playoffs at Watkins Glen. Whether he priortizes points over a win this time, only time will tell.