Denny Hamlin seems to be happy that the NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen is in his rear-view mirror. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin reacted to the race and talked about his new road course strategy.
“It’s a work in progress,” Denny Hamlin said about his new strategy. Hamlin then jokingly said that his strategy on road courses is, “to spend as least amount of time on them as possible.”
Hamlin then got serious and said he’s “trying some different technique stuff. It’s going to take a long while, but I’ve got nothing to lose, so just working on different techniques and see how it goes.”
After talking about his strategy, Hamlin then shared his thoughts on the Watkins Glen race. “This is just one of those races that’s on our schedule,” Hamlin stated. “We’re likely not going to contend for a win, so trying to get the best finish you can, try to qualify as good as you can.
Denny Hamlin revealed what caused his P25 finish at Watkins Glen
“I definitely hurt our track position in qualifying and then messed up at the end of the bus stop. So qualified P22, got swallowed up on the initial start. Had a few bobbles there, went to 30th rather quickly. And then that’s where we hung out until towards the end of the run, started going forward. And then at the end of the race same thing. We started marching a little bit more forward. Needed more laps to see it all the way through, but the positioning started changing for the field with about 10 laps to go.”
Hamlin earned a P25 finish at Watkins Glen. It’s the second consecutive week that the 44-year-old finished outside the top 20. Winning at Watkins Glen wasn’t a must for Hamlin, as he has already won four races this year and doesn’t have a strong chance to win the regular season championship.
With two races remaining in the regular season, Hamlin is in third place in Cup points with 731 and is 81 points behind the leader, William Byron. He does lead the field in playoff points with 24, and if the playoffs ended today, Hamlin would finish second behind Byron in the playoff standings.
