Hamlin doesn't regret castigating team; admits work still to be done
Denny Hamlin has no regrets about castigating his team over his in-car radio two weekends ago New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota appeared capable of winning before a faulty fuel probe -- the device that gets fuel into the car -- forced him to make multiple pit stops and lose four laps.
Hamlin later crashed out of the race, and needed to come from behind in the standings this past weekend at Dover just to be among the 12 drivers who advanced to the upcoming Chase Contender Round.
Now with the points reset and all dozen remaining championship contenders entering Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway tied with 3,000 points, Hamlin's title hopes suddenly have new life.
And he doesn't wish he could take back telling his team at New Hampshire that, "We suck at this. We are so bad."
Crew chief Darian Grubb retorted by telling Hamlin, who was sitting on pit road at the time, "Dude, I don't need you doing this. Keep your mouth shut until we get this fixed."
Speaking Wednesday afternoon during a Chase Contender Round Media event at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., Hamlin defended his candid assessment of his team at New Hampshire.
"I really didn't say anything," Hamlin said. "The clips that you get of me saying we suck at this was talking about fixing a car and not going a lap down on pit road. It had nothing to do with the Chase or anything like that. You get a little bit frustrated with that but, no, we were fine and really it's just more critiquing how we cannot lose so many laps when were fixing our car.
"It's happened to us in the past before, but it's water under the bridge and really for us we're re-set and we're tied for the points lead, so who knows where we'll end up?"
Despite showing at least decent speed in all three Challenger Round races, Hamlin's only top-10 finish was a sixth-place at Chicagoland Speedway.
While the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is glad to be back on equal footing points-wise with his fellow title contenders, he believes the JGR organization as a whole is still lacking what it needs to mount a serious championship run.
"Our race team we all know is not where the Penske and the Hendrick guys have been all year long, but we continue to get better, and eventually we're going to hit it, and hopefully we hit it at the right time and it allows us to keep advancing and put ourselves in a position to win a championship," said Hamlin, who finished a career-best runner-up in points in 2010.
"We've still got months of racing left. We know that and so we've seen guys hit three-race hot streaks at any moment, and hopefully it's us at the right time, but we continue to keep working. We're still behind, so we keep working that much harder to catch up, and eventually, hopefully we hit it and the other guys stay the same."
Hamlin certainly isn't throwing in the towel on a championship with seven races still remaining and much yet to be decided.
"All it takes is one new chassis, one new car that is magical, and things change for you, but it's good to be back in the Chase and be part of the discussion again of being in the championship picture," said Hamlin, who in 2013 missed NASCAR's playoff for the first time in his Sprint Cup career. "Last year was a very lonely feeling of being at home and being on Twitter and things like that, reading guys that are going to these different media outlets for the Chase when you've been a part of it for seven or eight straight years, and now you're not.
"So it feels good to be back, and you don't take those things for granted."
