The first six races of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase have not gone as Denny Hamlin planned. He's failed to win a race, and he has fallen to 49 points behind Kyle Larson.
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But he is not yet ready to start altering his approach as he takes on Phoenix Raceway.
"You don't need to throw Hail Mary's 'til the end of the game," Hamlin said on Saturday afternoon. "And so I think that you got to keep just getting little small gains, but that's something that we have to start chipping away.
"It's... certainly, the time is going by, and so chipping away will still get it done, but it has to start sooner than later. So I think... again, I've not hit the panic button at all, but I can see it, and I'm just not quite there yet."
The regular season ended with Hamlin having a massive advantage over the field. Once the points reset for the Chase, he only had 25 points separating him from second place.
That advantage is now gone. Hamlin has two top-five finishes in six races. He did not dominate during the stretch at intermediate tracks — Kansas, Las Vegas, and Charlotte.
Meanwhile, Larson has scored two wins. So has Chase Briscoe. Joey Logano and Christopher Bell have each won once.
Hamlin has still kept himself within reach of the points lead, but he has fallen as the Chase has progressed. Now, he faces his largest deficit at 49 points, one that he will try to erase at a track where he hasn't won since the 2019 season.
Though he has finished second, sixth, and fifth in his last three Cup starts at Phoenix Raceway while leading a combined 216 laps. He would have won last season's championship race if not for a late caution and a four-tire pit call.
"I've only had two potential race winning cars, crashed in both of those races," Hamlin said.
"So just need to clean things up and overall as a team we have to execute better and we need to be faster in all facets, on pit road, on the racetrack, all the things have to be faster because these guys are obviously performing at a high level and you have to match that speed."
If Hamlin can cut into Larson's lead this weekend, he will be able to leave the panic button alone. He will be able to continue going about his business while just trying to get back into contention.
But if the No. 11 team has another average weekend, he could have to alter his approach for Talladega Superspeedway, Martinsville Speedway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"It starts with this weekend," Hamlin added. "If we end up with a larger deficit leaving here than what we started, then yeah, we need to start pressing from this point on."
