CONCORD, N.C. — Denny Hamlin and William Byron were sensational Sunday, fighting tooth and nail for the lead in a thrilling duel for Coca-Cola 600 glory.
But a misstep on what should have been Hamlin’s final pit stop eliminated the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from contention late in the going at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
Both drivers hit pit road on Lap 348 of 400 Sunday night, setting the clear premise that the winner of the race off pit road may be the victor of the race. All looked normal at first — Byron barely beat Hamlin back to the race track and built an advantage. But crew chief Chris Gayle and the rest of his No. 11 team quickly realized a fueling issue prevented approximately four gallons from getting into their Toyota’s fuel tank, leaving Hamlin 12 laps short of the checkered flag.
Instead of fighting with Byron and eventual race winner Ross Chastain for victory, Hamlin hit pit road on Lap 389 to refuel and instead finish 16th, the penultimate car on the lead lap.
“I feel good about our performance. I feel crappy about how we finished,” Hamlin said. “That’s been the story of the last month, and not much has changed.”
After two straight DNFs due to mechanical failures, Hamlin appeared primed to put those demons to rest in NASCAR’s debut broadcast on Prime Video. Instead, the fuel can of Hamlin’s fueler Kenneth Purcell either malfunctioned or was not engaged properly, upending any positive momentum.
“Once we had gotten to the front and had the lead for a little bit, the mileage was a little worse than what we anticipated,” Gayle explained. “We had one can that was gonna be close, and then the mileage was a little worse, and we knew, ‘OK, if we get the lead here, we’re going to need a little bit of a second can.’ So we just needed an extra half a gallon from a second can. And so they normally split that.
“So I knew the total plug time I needed to get that amount of fuel, right? And I thought we were plugged in for that, per the stopwatch, per the video I watched. But for whatever reason, the second can, when they plugged, it barely took any fuel out at all — like there was a problem. I can’t tell from the view right now if it’s a bad plug, like open on the bottom — we saw a bunch of fuel coming out of the bottom. But it got about four gallons less than we expected in it. I would have needed to sit there for another two seconds to get four gallons in it.”
Once Gayle relayed the bad news, Hamlin, 2022 winner of the Coke 600, knew his chances were done. He still fought for his best finish since a runner-up effort at Bristol Motor Speedway — way back on April 13 — but the hunt for Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet had been neutralized.
“We were really fast, obviously,” Hamlin said. “Us and the 24 were the class of the field for most of the day, and then the 1 (Chastain) came on really strong there at the end. Would have loved to see that battle through, but obviously, once they told me that I was short on fuel, at that point, I kind of stopped chasing the 24 just because I’m not going to risk trying to get in the fence when I’m too short on fuel anyway.”
MORE: Drivers in focus leaving Charlotte
In all, according to Racing Insights, the Nos. 11 and 24 cars traded the lead 15 times among themselves. When one cleared the other, the trailing car reeled back the leader, playing the aero game by manipulating the air traveling around their opponent and striking with a pass.
“It was fun battling up front,” Hamlin added. “Nobody could lead because everyone would get too loose. My car was better in second but fast enough to lead. But once I led, it was too loose, so we were just back and forth, and obviously put on a great show.”
The result will not represent the speed the No. 11 car carried Sunday, but the stats provided by NASCAR Insights do. As fate would have it, the No. 11 crew was ranked best of the night in Pit Crew Rating. Their driver then did his job on the race track, ranking second in Speed Rating (only behind Byron), second in Restart Rating, fourth in Passer Rating and fifth in Defense Rating.
No one left with any doubts the No. 11 team is dangerous — it just needs results to show it after a 21st-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway was followed by two mechanical failures and a poor showing at the exhibition NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 18.
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
“Yeah, we didn’t have the results,” Gayle said. “I think we were gonna be strong at Texas (Motor Speedway). I think we had really good pace at Kansas (Speedway). We just had mechanical issues take us out. And then we weren’t very good at North Wilkesboro. That’s the one we 100% missed it on, and we had a plethora of issues that weekend that plagued us. But it’s good to keep running well.
“We were much better today than we were in practice, so you can hang your hat on that. We were able to make changes overnight that really got us to be a contending car when we weren’t that way in practice, so I think I just lean on those positives at this point, because that’s all you can do, right? We’re all disappointed with the ultimate finish at the end of the race, but the rest was positive.”
Hamlin and Co. will look to rebound at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where he has two top 10s in the past three races and was in position to contest the victory in 2024.
