RELATED: Talladega race recap | Full results
Part of the roof of Denny Hamlin‘s No. 11 Toyota started to break off midway through Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, forcing the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to pit road to fix the issue.
Hamlin took his Camry to pit road on Lap 88 after NASCAR told the team to bring the car in because his roof hatch was coming off, but in an effort to make a quick adjustment and not lose a lap, the fix was not secure enough and he had to come back in.
Roof hatches are not used in all races. They are installed at superspeedways as a safety measure to give drivers an alternate exit from the car.
Because the issue took Hamlin off the lead lap, it hindered Hamlin’s chances of continuing on in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
The JGR driver recuperated to get back on the lead lap, but was caught up in a wreck on the final restart, relegating him to a 37th-place finish, putting him out of the Chase.