The first two weeks of the NASCAR Chase have not gone smoothly for Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team. Yet, they maintain a slim points lead heading toward Bristol Motor Speedway.
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Hamlin now has a nine-point lead over Kyle Larson, who won Sunday night's caution-filled race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
"I think we are so fortunate," Hamlin said after finishing ninth at the Illinois track. "We were strong last week, and this week we were not strong, and still, we maintained the lead.
"With all of the tracks coming up, we have a good notebook on. Here was the first one where we were coming back with a new package. We haven't been good all year with this package at this track for the first time. I feel like we've been given a second chance. We just have to go and be better now."
The race weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway featured the updated package with 750 horsepower and lower downforce, a package meant to put more control in the drivers' hands.
It certainly led to more mistakes as drivers spun out or hit each other while trying to go three- and four-wide on restarts.
Although the normal brake rotor issues led to several drivers crashing and failing to finish the race. This includes Chase contenders Ryan Blaney (35th), Chase Elliott (31st), and Chris Buescher (27th). Elliott also collected Chase Briscoe (32nd) when his brake rotors failed.
Hamlin said after the race that was only a few laps away from having his own brake rotor issues, but he avoided them. Instead, he just didn't have the day that he needed to rebound from an 18th-place finish at Darlington Raceway.
The Chase opener at Darlington featured Hamlin falling back into the pack after issues on pit road. He then hit the wall and broke a toe link after contact from Michael McDowell. Only his 16 stage points scored kept him atop the standings.
The Chase's No. 1 seed started Sunday's race at WWT Raceway in 10th place, but he fell back in the pack during a chaotic opening stage featuring four cautions for incidents. He missed out on points in the opening stage but rebounded to gain five in the second.
And while he still struggled on restarts, he avoided the chaos that collected other Chase drivers. This race featured a record-setting 18 cautions, two red flag stoppages, and two attempts at overtime.
Hamlin kept his car clean amidst the chaos, and he kept himself in contention for a top-10 finish. This, along with the issues throughout the field, kept him atop the standings.
"Not a great day for sure. I wasn't good on restarts," Hamlin said. "I couldn't get the car to do what I needed to on restarts, and then obviously we had that bad stop which put us further back with a car that wasn't very good on restarts and a driver that wasn't good on restarts.
"Just a bad combination. Needed others to have issues to get a good finish out of it."
Now, he heads to one of his best tracks. Hamlin is the active wins leader at Bristol Motor Speedway. He has four trips to victory lane at the short track, including consecutive wins in 2023 and 2024. He also finished second in the 2025 spring race.
