"It’s just so hard to pass," claims Denny Hamlin after coming home 5th at NASCAR Talladega race

Denny Hamlin didn't want to repeat an old song after competing in yesterday's Yellawood 500 as he claimed that overtaking at Talladega Superspeedway seemed difficult for the #11 FedEx Toyota Camry TRD driver. After facing similar problems in the NASCAR Cup Series race in Texas, the 41-year-old confirmed that, however, was the case.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver managed to finish in the top 5 of the 188-lap-long race, which was dominated by cars running in two lanes, with the appearance of a third lane at certain points during the event. Hamlin finished his day on a positive note as he managed to accrue points in the first stage of the race, followed by a worthwhile finish as the 500-mile-race drew to a close.

Denny Hamlin elaborated on how he felt behind the wheel of the car and said:

“It’s just so hard to pass, and I know you’ve all heard that. It’s just a train of two lines. You really can’t run three-wide with this car so you just have to sit behind whoever is right there in front of you and hope you can push that line a little bit forward. Hopefully, they switch lanes, and you can leap forward. That’s kind of what we’ve got right now so I feel like we executed a pretty good day. Our goal going into the day was five stage points and we got more than five the first stage and not in stage two and then tried to go and get a good finish and that’s what we did."

Hamlin sits in P4 on the driver's playoff standings table and will be aiming to solidify his title bid the next time NASCAR goes racing at Charlotte Roval.

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Denny Hamlin reveals how he evaluated risk versus reward situations during the 2022 NASCAR Yellawood 500

Tampa, Florida native Denny Hamlin seemed to manage his expectations and looked at the bigger picture during his last outing at Talladega Superspeedway yesterday. The Yellawood 500 saw Hamlin in contention for victory in the latter stages of the race, as he took a more cautious approach to ensure a points-finish.

He elaborated on how he thought about following Chase Elliott into the lead after bump-drafting him and said:

“I was able to give Chase (Elliott) a push right there and I thought about, ‘Should I go with him and force three wide?’ But I’m on the bottom and I know I’ve always got someone coming up behind me. Then I’d be in the middle and just the risk wasn’t worth going back to 15th and getting stuck in the middle. To me, this is a three-race season that we have and we’re points racing.”

Watch Denny Hamlin race at the Charlotte Roval Road Course next Sunday for the Bank of America Roval 400.