{"id":72363,"date":"2024-10-11T11:27:37","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T16:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/denny-hamlin-explains-curious-pit-road-tire-decision-at-talladega\/"},"modified":"2024-10-11T11:27:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T16:27:37","slug":"denny-hamlin-explains-curious-pit-road-tire-decision-at-talladega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/denny-hamlin-explains-curious-pit-road-tire-decision-at-talladega\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin explains curious pit road tire decision at Talladega"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denny Hamlin<\/a><\/strong> seemed destined to contend for the win during the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway over the weekend, but a myriad of factors took him out of contention for the checkered flag.<\/p>\n

One of those factors included a curious decision on pit road as the final stage was coming to an end. The No. 11 team decided to take two tires during their pit stop with 15 laps to go, and it led to them losing the draft. The decision was curious, and Hamlin took some time to pick it apart during the latest episode of his\u00a0Actions Detrimental<\/a><\/em>\u00a0podcast<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe just were really smart this weekend,\u201d Hamlin said sarcastically<\/a>, regarding the decision to take two tires and the race at Talladega as a whole. \u201cWe took two tires with 15 laps to go. We came in pit road wherever we came in, we were probably about middle of the pack, and he called me to pit road. I thought I did an okay job coming to pit road. We come in, I take two tires. I leave pit road, and at that point, I\u2019m the last car to come off pit lane. I knew I had some damage, so I really couldn\u2019t tell much of the extent of the damage that I had most of the day, because I was in the pack. I had a lot of air disturbed around me, so I didn\u2019t understand how slow my car was. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came off, the last car on pit road, and I started to \u2014 as I\u2019m going through the gears, I\u2019m starting to see cars pulling away, I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh shit, this is not good. I\u2019m going to lose the draft, and very quickly.\u2019 It\u2019s something with the aerodynamic package and this car, it\u2019s very easy to lose the draft at the tail-end, even if your car is healthy, but I just had entirely too much damage. We spent too much time on the cycle. Somewhere between when I decelerated off of Turn 4 and when I left pit road, we spent too much time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where that time was, and me and Chris will dive into it today, but we came off last of pit road and I lost the draft, but it turned out to be quite the break.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, the pit stop actually helped Hamlin in a way \u2014 he was so far removed from the pack that he avoided \u201cThe Big One,\u201d which collected 28 cars, and helped the No. 11 team find their way to a top ten finish in Alabama. If it wasn\u2019t for the mistake on pit road, Hamlin likely would\u2019ve been involved, like the rest of the field.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Denny Hamlin is 30 points to the good heading into the final race of the Round of 12 at the Charlotte Roval, and looks primed to advance to the Round of 8. We\u2019ll see if he can iron out his mistakes over the next couple of weeks, in search of his first Cup Series title. <\/p>\n

The post Denny Hamlin explains curious pit road tire decision at Talladega<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denny Hamlin seemed destined to contend for the win during the YellaWood 500 at Talladega…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}