Denny Hamlin fell one place short of his eighth Cup Series win at Pocono Raceway. Yet he walked away with the belief that the No. 11 team is not showing weaknesses as the playoffs loom.
After all, he won the pole at Pocono Raceway, led 32 laps, won a stage, and finished second. This marked his third consecutive race where he finished third or better, which included a win at Michigan International Speedway.
"We're really strong," Hamlin told Prime Video's Trevor Bayne after finishing second behind teammate Chase Briscoe. "Not showing up with any weaknesses right now. I'm really proud of the effort we've put forth.
"Love to get more wins, but still, it was a good overall solid day for us and now we move on to the next series of races."
Good to the last drop. pic.twitter.com/XoTltX1Vec
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Hamlin missed one race this season due to the birth of his first son, but he has remained in contention for top-10 finishes in the majority of his starts. He has nine top-10 finishes in 17 races. He has eight top-fives and three wins.
Hamlin has also finished third or better in seven races this season while stockpiling stage points. The result is that he is third in the Cup Series standings with 19 playoff points. The only driver with more playoff points is Kyle Larson (23).
The veteran driver was on the cusp of another win at Pocono Raceway, but his team's pit strategy and the Gen 7 car's weaknesses disrupted these efforts.
Briscoe, the winner of stage 2 and the race, chose to pit on Lap 120 in the final stage. Larson, Ryan Preece, and Carson Hocevar all followed this strategy. Hamlin pitted one lap later with Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, and other drivers.
The caution flew on Lap 124, which bunched the field back up for a restart. Brad Keselowski, Justin Haley, and Kyle Busch all had to pit under caution while Briscoe cycled back to the lead. Hamlin followed in second for the final restart with 30 laps to go.
"There was a key moment when the 19 and some other guys pitted and the caution came out and leaped him in front of us," Hamlin said.
"At that point, we knew it was going to be really hard to pass those guys back on the racetrack. Team did a great job, next best in line there of our strategy, it just didn't work out."
Briscoe cleared for the lead on the restart, and he began cycling through laps while trying to conserve fuel. This is where one of the weaknesses of the Gen 7 car surfaced.
Hamlin pushed the pace to try and run his teammate out of fuel, but he remained unsuccessful. He also couldn't get alongside the No. 19 due to the dirty air. He just had to settle for a runner-up finish, his third of the season.
The finish wasn't what Hamlin wanted, but he walked away with 51 points, the second-most of the day.