“Ran out of talent” - Fans react as Denny Hamlin spins out during Stage 1 at Michigan

Fans reacted to Denny Hamlin spinning out in Sunday's rain-delayed Cup Series race, the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver started from the pole and with eight laps left in the opening stage, he got loose off of turn 4 and spun down the track into the grasswork.

Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson snatched the lead from Hamlin in the opening lap, leading the first 34 laps of the 400-lap event. Hamlin finally caught up to Larson's No. 5 Chevy in lap 35. A battle for the lead ensued between the two NASCAR speedsters.

However, seconds later, 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace veered to the inside of the duo and grabbed the lead. Hamlin finally passed Larson and chased Wallace thereafter. Things then went south for the veteran racer.

"All my air got pinched off," Hamlin was heard radioing to his team (via The Tennessean).

Here is a video of Denny Hamlin spinning out at the FireKeepers Casino 400:

Several fans reacted to Hamlin spinning out, with one sarcastically claiming that he had run out of talent. The fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter):

"Ran Out Of Talent"

Another fan commented that it could not have happened to a better person:

"Couldn’t happen to a better person," they said.

Here are some other reactions to Hamlin spinning out at Michigan:

"Crossed the invisible line," a fan said.

"Looks like he was racing for second and lost 🥺," another wrote.

"Denny decided he wanted to go to McDonald's instead," a fan joked.

The race was initially delayed by more than 2 hours due to the rain and was rescheduled for Monday from 11 AM ET onwards.

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Denny Hamlin names NASCAR's ideal short-track tires

NASCAR ran two different tires at Richmond last week. One of them was the usual 'prime' tires marked with yellow lettering, while the other was the softer 'option' tires with red lettering. Although NASCAR had used both tires during the All-Star Race earlier this year, they were featured for the first time in a point-paying race last weekend.

After running the 400-lap event at the 0.75-mile short track, Hamlin felt that the 'option' tires were perfect for running on short tracks. In an episode of his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin said:

"I think we found our new short-track tires; we need to just run the reds. Immediately what the public would think is that if you're gonna put us all on reds we're just gonna have the same races what we had before, which is not true."

The 'option' tires facilitate heightened speed but only over a short period as these tires are more likely to wear off than the harder 'prime' tires. This means passing becomes easier for every car on the field.

"The reason it's not true is that there was a few cars on different strategies so got to see them do some passing (and) things like that," Hamlin explained. "If you put us all on red for the entire race, you'll see a lap time fall off to a big number and then you'd see tons of passing with those tires," Hamlin said.

"Just the softest tire they can get needs to be our short-track tire and then let us figure it out," he added.

Denny Hamlin currently sits 4th in the Cup Series standings with 758 points to his name. He has won 3 races so far this season.