“Worst day ever”: Denny Hamlin reflects on Kansas playoff disappointment despite having the ‘fastest car’

There were three strikes for Denny Hamlin's No. 11 team on Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway, which ultimately resulted in a top-10 finish for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Although it was a good points day for him, Hamlin felt that he could have won the race, claiming that his car was the "fastest."

Hamlin earned 36 points en route to his 10th top-10 of the season. However, it didn't come easy. The first issue came on the pit road. Hamlin, who was running inside the top five at the time, left his pit box outside of the top 10. Nevertheless, Hamlin finished 4th in Stage 1.

Hamlin suffered a loose wheel in another pit stop at the end of the second stage (lap 167), which relegated him to the back of the field. Hamlin needed just one more restart to gather positions, but poor luck kept chasing the veteran racer.

"Maybe the worst day ever, I don't know, I've had some pretty days" Hamlin told journalist Bob Pockrass in a post-race interview. "Just a horrible day. Came out 15th to 20th and then we have loose wheel. Just terrible."

Richard Childress Racing driver, Kyle Busch, spun with about 30 laps to go until the checkered flag, bringing out the ninth caution of the day. Hamlin hoped to salvage his day with a good restart but unfortunately fell back as far behind as 16th.

"We should have won the race. We had the fastest car but every time when we get to the top-3, a caution comes out (and) we restart 5th or 20th. Can't show how fast your car is when you're back int he pack. All you can do is keep making positions back up to the front over and over and eventually just run out of laps and somebody else wins," Hamlin added. (0:16)

As of today, Denny Hamlin sits 5th in the point standings with 3051 points to his name and 11 points above the elimination line. The Tampa, Florida native is currently trailing his 55th career win.

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From "trying to get through" to "all offensive" to "not in it", Denny Hamlin's playoff journey remains under question

Denny Hamlin had resorted to a rather analytical strategy in the first race of this year's playoffs at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He just aimed to get through the round.

The strategy did not pay off and he got caught up in a last-lap crash between Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott, Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain, and Harrison Burton of Wood Brothers Racing.

Therefore, Hamlin decided to go all offensive at Bristol two weeks later. However, it was Kyle Larson who had the last laugh. Hamlin stated during a post-race interview at the Tennesseean short-track (via Skewcar):

"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," he added.

However, come Kansas, this is what Hamlin told Pockrass:

"I'm not in it mentally, I'll tell you that.There's a lot of wires crossed and bolts loose at the moment. But what can I do? I'll just do the best I can to drive the car and do my part."

Hamlin's next race is at Talladega Superspeedway on October 6. Hamlin has two wins at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, but none of them are with the NextGen car. Since the ushering of the new car, Hamlin's best finish at Talladega has been a third-place finish in October 2023. What new strategy will the speedster conjure ahead of next week's event?