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Denny Hamlin lost to race winner Ryan Blaney by 0.266 seconds in an overtime finish on Sunday’s All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway. The 41-year-old pitted for two tires in his final pit stop, giving him a chance to run with the leaders.
On the final lap of the restart, Hamlin had a run on the outside of Blaney, but he was unable to make a pass and was forced to settle for a P2 finish.
During the post-race interview, Hamlin spoke about his second-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. Claiming that his #11 Toyota was good and finished where he wanted to be, he said:
“Our car was good. We lost the handle there with a couple runs to go and just started getting really loose. The further up front we were, the looser we got. We had an opportunity and I got right where I wanted to be on the 12 (Ryan Blaney) there and I got to his outside and he just kept forcing up, up, up and I just couldn’t quite stay there.”
He continued by saying:
“I think he was going to come up no matter what and we were probably going to crash because he knew we were in a bad spot. I got a really good run through one and two and I couldn’t ask for much more there. I just didn’t have Daniel (Suarez) pushing me down the frontstretch and unfortunately with that, I couldn’t get up beside him as far as I needed to.”
“My crew chief is taking four weeks off because of safety”- Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin admitted that on the final restart there was an opportunity for him to get ahead of Ryan Blaney. He later expressed his disappointment with the extra shelter of extended laps under caution given to Blaney to get the safety window net back up and secured.
He said:
“I thought that it was an opportunity, otherwise the 12 was going to win the race. You know, it’s tough because he deserved to win the race, but if you mess up and you break a rule – not intentionally, but there’s rules and we have rules in place for safety. My crew chief is taking four weeks off (a penalty from a pit-road infraction earlier in the season) because of safety.”
Catch Denny Hamlin next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600 on May 29, 2022.
