Denny Hamlin backslides in Southern 500 after wall contact in final stage
Here is the thing about the : the track has no mercy for anyone, and Sunday proved it once again. saw his entire bid for a fourth Cook Out Southern 500 victory completely unravel early in the final stage when he pounded the wall off Turn 4. The incident dumped him all the way back to an 18th-place finish, a wild backslide for a driver who started the afternoon carrying the top spot in the standings.
The trouble began immediately as the final stage got underway in the opening race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1. Hamlin got loose exiting Turn 4, and before he could gather the machine, gave him a bump from behind. That contact turned the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota right-front-first straight into the concrete. The rest of the field scrambled in a frantic rush to avoid the spinning beast, leaving Hamlin stranded and dropping all the way to 20th place as the final car still on the lead lap.
It was a brutal twist of fate for a driver who entered the 10-race postseason as the No. 1 seed with a 25-point cushion over . Unluckily for Hamlin, the descent had actually started just moments earlier in the pit lane. After finishing the second stage in a strong third position, a sluggish stop struck when the No. 11 JGR pit crew ran into trouble getting the right-rear wheel tightened. That extended stationary time cost him 13 positions, forcing him to restart down in 16th for the final stage before disaster struck in the turns.
"Yeah, it's frustrating for sure," Hamlin said. "You know, those are the kind of incidents that I've avoided for the most part this year. It was avoidable, but it also was part of everybody fighting for their own finishing position."
Without pitting immediately, Hamlin circulated while radioing crew chief Chris Gayle with fears that his right-side toe links were broken. The bleeding continued when race leader put him a lap down at Lap 266. A timely caution for spinning at Lap 283 finally allowed the crew to go to work in the pits. Chris Gayle confirmed over the radio that the right-front toe link was bent, though the right-rear was spared, while suspecting potential damage to the upper or lower control arms that ultimately proved too subtle to definitively spot or adjust.
