Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth: 99 laps led, two finishes outside top 25
RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings
FONTANA, Calif. — Denny Hamlin went into Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway looking for redemption.
But what he found was ill-timed misfortune.
After leading 56 laps, the second-highest total of the race, Hamlin suffered a pit road penalty on Lap 186 when an uncontrolled tire left his pit box, dropping the Joe Gibbs Racing driver from third to 30th.
“We worked our way up to the top five and then the top three and then had a penalty,” Hamlin said on pit road following his 28th-place finish. “You just can’t come back from that. There ain’t nobody in the field with a fast enough car to come back from that. We had (a penalty) at an inopportune time and it just led to a bad finish and we blew up at the end, so that topped everything off.”
Last week at Phoenix International Raceway, Hamlin received a pit road penalty on Lap 68 for a crewmember being over the wall too soon, and after the Virginia native received the penalty this week he came over his radio to express his displeasure.
“This better not be two weeks in a row, I’m telling you,” Hamlin radioed to his team. “We can’t catch a (expletive) break.”
Hamlin had high hopes of shaking his California calamities after fracturing his L1 vertebra in 2013 on a last-lap wreck when battling Joey Logano — an injury that sidelined him for the four races that followed. And last year, Hamlin qualified 13th at Fontana, but had to be replaced in his No. 11 Toyota when he experienced vision issues that was later found to be caused from a piece of metal lodged into his eye.
Hamlin wasn’t the only JGR driver who experienced pit road mishaps, either. Both the No. 20 of Matt Kenseth and the No. 19 of Carl Edwards also saw setbacks.
After leading 43 laps, Kenseth went to pit road as the leader on Lap 185 and left with four tires and a damaged axle when the jack dropped, resulting in a mechanical failure and a 31st-place finish. He had logged two pit stops of fewer than 11 seconds before that incident.
“I let the clutch out to go and the axle broke,” Kenseth explained. “I don’t know why. I didn’t do anything different than we ever do, so it just broke.
“I don’t think that’s (bad) luck. An axle breaking is either a faulty part or not the right part or not the gear ratio or — there’s usually a reason. We busted one last year — somebody did, one of our cars — and I don’t know that we ever figured out why and then we just broke another one, so it’s certainly something you’ve got to get a handle on. You can’t break parts. Nobody breaks parts anymore, so you can’t afford to do it obviously.”
Edwards was penalized on Lap 200 (the race was extended to 209 laps due to two attempts at a green-white-checkered finish) for being too fast on pit road, but he was able to work his way back up from the rear to finish 13th.
“That was a hard-fought race,” Edwards said. “I got a speeding penalty toward the end and put us back in the back and made it back up to 13th. A great group effort by my guys with the backup car. Even though we couldn’t get a win, to put that effort forth was huge.”
Coincidentally, the only JGR driver who didn’t have trouble on pit road spun out on the track. David Ragan, who is still filling in for an injured Kyle Busch in the No. 18, brought out the first caution of the day when Jeff Gordon took the air off Ragan’s Toyota. Ragan ultimately finished 18th.
Through five races none of the JGR drivers are in the top 10 in points. Kenseth is currently the highest-running driver in the team sitting 13th in the driver standings with Hamlin and David Ragan following in 14th and 15th, respectively. JGR newcomer Edwards is close in 17th.
Next week, the Sprint Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway, where Hamlin has earned four wins, nine top-five and 14 top-10 finishes in 18 career Cup starts.
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