Denny Hamlin lost ground to points leader Kyle Larson in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason fight, faltering after a Stage 1 spin at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Hamlin finished 16th in Sunday’s South Point 400, the fifth of 10 races in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, after his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota spun in the high line of Turn 4 in the 78th of 267 laps. Hamlin’s car did not make contact with the wall or another competitor, but he resumed the race — which continued without a caution flag — with what he suspected was damage to the front splitter.
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Hamlin, who started from the pole position at the front of the 36-car field, was running fourth when trouble hit. He finished the first stage in 28th and could only recover to 14th at the end of Stage 2, shutting him out of a stage-point payday. Entering as winner of the last two Las Vegas races, Hamlin climbed back to 11th before the final-stage restart, but a fuel pickup issue dropped him back several more positions.
Hamlin entered the race ranked second out of the 16 championship-eligible drivers in The Chase standings. He stayed there after Sunday’s 400-miler, but lost 14 points relative to Larson’s lead and reached the halfway mark of The Chase facing a 40-point deficit. Hamlin began The Chase as the No. 1 seed, starting 25 points ahead of second.
Larson was 24th and 10th at the stages after battling early handling woes with his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and fell a lap down at one point. But a dramatic recovery helped lift him to second place at the checkered flag.
This story will be updated.
