“Not enough to create passing” - Denny Hamlin criticizes Goodyear’s product as it failed to emulate Bristol's previous fall-off

Denny Hamlin has blamed Goodyear's compound for its failure to get appropriately worn down on the asphalt of Bristol Motor Speedway. Unlike the regular season battle at the 'World's Fastest Half-Mile,' where tires lasted nearly 50 laps as Hamlin won the race, the recent Round of 16 finale painted a different picture.

Goodyear allocated the same compounds at the Bass Pro Shops Night Race that they did for the regular season race at Bristol. However, unlike the rapid wear in the previous debacle, which called for last-minute strategies, the elimination night didn't witness the heavy wear. Jeff Gluck mentioned that the tires 'barely' exhibited signs of wearing out for the first 125 laps.

As tires got less fatigued, the NextGen cars didn't have fresh rubber to contact Bristol's surface and provide ample grip for passing the rivals. Denny Hamlin compared the lap-time fall off of the frontrunners to that of the drivers in fourth place or worse, blaming Goodyear's product for the same.

During the Actions Detrimental podcast, the 54-time Cup Series race winner said:

"The leaders could run 15.50s (seconds) and they ended the run almost 100 laps later, running like 16.20s. So seven tenths over 100 laps. If you're not first, second, or third, your lap time fall-off was four-tenths. It's just not enough to create passing."

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver agreed to the co-host's take that the issue was with the car and that the sport was trying to fix that with the tires.

"Jared, you are right that it is a car problem (that) we are trying to fix with tires because that's the most economical way for us to fix it. Me, as a car owner, I do not want to buy any more parts or pieces for this NextGen car," the veteran driver added.

Despite less fall-off, Denny Hamlin climbed from an eighth-place start in the elimination race at Bristol to finishing fourth.

"It's all offense from this point forward" - Denny Hamlin restructures his playoff strategy after making the Round of 12

The 0.533-mile oval hosted the 127th edition of Cup Series racing and witnessed undisputed dominance by Kyle Larson. The Hendrick Motorsports driver swept both stage wins and led 462 laps before registering his fifth triumph of the season.

Denny Hamlin entered the Bass Pro Shops Night Race below the elimination line. However, after posting sixth and third-place finishes in both stages and P4 overall, the JGR driver emerged above the bubble and will be seen in the Round of 12 at Kansas Speedway.

Unlike his redemption run at Bristol, Hamlin had a rather defensive strategy in the playoff-opener race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and eyed to settle with 20 points. The next race at Watkins Glen saw another lackluster display, sending the JGR driver below the cutline.

But after advancing to the Round of 12, the Virginia native touched upon implementing an "offensive" strategy starting at Kansas Speedway. He said (via Skewcar on X):

"My aspirations was to win it, you know, but it looked like the #5 (Kyle Larson) 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."

"Certainly," the JGR driver said about reseting strategy. "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."

Placed sixth in the playoffs, Denny Hamlin will enter the Round of 12 with a seven-point buffer.