Hamlin’s call backfires
The first 50-plus laps of Sunday’s Pocono 500 looked like a replay of last season, when the 26-year-old second-year driver from Chesterfield, Va., swept both races at the 2.5-mile triangular track.
However, with threatening skies overhead as the race neared the halfway point, Denny Hamlin’s team made the wrong call on a pit stop that put him back in the pack. He still finished a respectable sixth in the race that was shortened to 106 laps by rain. But he was left thinking about what might have been.
“In hindsight, the risk wasn’t worth the reward,” Denny Hamlin said. “When you get back there, you really have to burn up the brakes and run your car hard — harder than I’d like, especially how good it is.”
At the outset, Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Chevrolet was great.
Starting second, he shot into the lead by the time the 43-car field had reached turn 1 on the opening lap. He stayed there for 46 of the first 53 laps, relinquishing the lead only to make his first pit stop.
When the caution flag flew on lap 49 for debris on the track from the blown tire of Robby Gordon, Denny Hamlin again headed to the pits. This time, he came on second behind Ryan Newman, but still appeared to have the best car.
On lap 64, the caution flew again for debris on the track. With dark, ominous clouds in the distance and the rain imminent, a few drivers — such as eventual race winner Jeff Gordon — elected to stay on the track. Others who pitted — such as Newman — elected to take only two tires and fuel. Denny Hamlin’s team, though, changed all four tires on the car. He wound up returning to the track in 21st position.
“We wanted track position,” Newman said, “so putting on two tires on that stop was better than what the 11 (Denny Hamlin) did taking four and losing track position.”
Naturally, Denny Hamlin defended the decision.
“You never know how many cars are going to take two (tires) or none, so you don’t know that,” he said. “We take the smart, conservative approach and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”
