It’s been a rocky few weeks for Denny Hamlin, who was open in discussing why he and the team aren’t on their ‘A-game’ during this critical stage of the 2024 playoffs.

Hamlin, the winningest driver in NASCAR Cup Series history without a title, currently sits fifth of eight, 27 points below the cut-line. At Vegas, a fuel gamble allowed him to snag a top-ten finish that helped to limit the impact, but it was still an off day for Hamlin.

He hasn’t won during the playoffs yet, and unless “one or two of the guys up front stub their toe,” there likely isn’t a path for him to advance on points. So what’s going on with the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team and is it time for a change on the pit crew roster?

“No, you ride with the group you got,” said Hamlin in a Saturday media availability. “They’re certainly in a slump, for sure. But, we got to ride it out and feel like that’s the best group we can put on pit road. And certainly, it’s not due to talent or anything like that. They have all the keys they need for that. They were the best pit crew for the first quarter of this year.

“But, certainly, it’s been a lot of different issues on pit road. Pretty much most times we come down (pit road), it’s been different things, so can’t really pinpoint one consistent problem we’ve had. So, just have to see where it goes.”

Lacking the speed

Compounding the issue is the fact that Hamlin isn’t as fast we’d expect him to be. The car seems slightly off, which makes rebounding from such mistakes a much bigger challenge.

“We’re not leading laps,” explained Hamlin, who has led just five laps through the first seven races of the playoffs. But that’s not the only factor, according to the veteran driver.

“That’s definitely an indicator of speed. We haven’t done that over the last several weeks, certainly. You know, I don’t know. Again, I think some of it is schedule. We’ve had three of these typical ovals we’ve had in the series – Bristol is one of them we’ve ran top-three all day. Kansas, every time we got right at the lead, we had a bad pit stop.  And then, (Las) Vegas, obviously, was just wheels came off on that one. And that’s been seven weeks’ worth. You have the road courses. I’m not going to lead a bunch of laps there. Not going to show a ton of speed there. And then the superspeedways. So, it just feels like forever.”

But it’s important to realize that despite all of these issues, Hamlin is still in contention. Half of the playoff field has been eliminated but the No. 11 remains, as Hamlin himself points out: “…We still have a chance, even this late in the game.”

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Grant Enfinger had already locked himself into the Championship 4 via a win in the Round of 8, but he decided to go out and do it again for good measure. Two weeks after his Talladega win, he captured the checkered flag at Homestead as well after a masterful fuel-save.

“I felt I saved at least 20% more than I did in the first run, but Jeff (Stankiewicz, crew chief) was on me pretty hard obviously … Hard to beat these two weeks,” said Enfinger, who drives the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet. 

It’s Enfinger’s second consecutive win in this round alone (and his total for the season), heading to Phoenix in two weeks with all of the momentum. He’s getting hot at the right time as he tries to rectify last year’s tough championship loss.

“It’s definitely good (to be me right now),” smiled Enfinger. “We’ve had potential all year and there’s been some times I didn’t execute and there’s been some times we just had bad luck. But maybe this is the time we got our momentum.”

Fuel-save mastery and misery

This is Enfinger’s 12th career NASCAR Truck Series win. His status as a veteran driver was on full display as he maintained his advantage while taking every opportunity he could lift out of the throttle and draft with other trucks, saving fuel.

While several trucks ran out in the final moments of the race, the veteran Enfinger was not among them. Running second with two laps to go, Layne Riggs dropped to the apron as he was out of fuel. Playoff driver Nick Sanchez then moved into second, only to run out as well on the final lap. Riggs finished 22nd and Sanchez 13th.

Enfinger actually crossed the line over 17 seconds clear of the closest competition and still had enough fuel to do burnouts! It was a statement victory that ended with Ty Majeski a distant second, Connor Mosack third, Corey Heim fourth, and Tyler Ankrum fifth. Stewart Friesen, Daniel Dye, Rajah Caruth, Christian Eckes, and Taylor Gray rounded out the top-ten.

Enfinger’s comeback and the final run to the finish

It was not all smooth sailing for Enfinger, though. Contact on a mid-race restart with Christian Eckes forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop and put him behind for a bit. When the final restart occurred with 83 laps to go, he was back in 20th but was also one of a handful of drivers who had taken their final set of tires.

They all sliced through the field and luckily for them, the caution flag never flew again. With about 35 laps to go, most of the leaders not on Enfinger’s strategy came in under green for their final set of tires.

With 25 laps to go, a charging Enfinger moved into the second position. At that point, Heim was around 30 seconds back. It didn’t take Enfinger long to run down Riggs, passing him for the lead with an outside with 22 laps remaining.

Dawson Sutton and Tanner Gray ran long, saving their final set of tires while hoping for a lucky caution. It never cam and both had to pit under green. With ten laps left, Heim had stalled out and was no longer gaining large chunks of time on the race leaders.

It was game over as Enfinger managed to save enough fuel while his closest rivals fell to the wayside.

Update on playoff standings and Mills’ condition

Looking at the points standings ahead of the elimination race at Martinsville, Heim is looking very secure at +49 points above the cut-line. Christian Eckes sits at +38 and Ty Majeski is at +22. Sitting within the elimination zone are Rajah Caruth (-22 points), Taylor Gray (-24 points), Tyler Ankrum (-41 points), and Sanchez (-43 points).

During the middle of the race, there was a scary incident where Connor Jones lost his cool and punted Matt Mills into the outside wall. He quickly climbed from the truck as fire erupted while NASCAR penalized Jones two laps for reckless driving. Mills has since been transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

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The FIA is to revise the wording of its controversial racing guidelines after a meeting with the Formula 1 drivers in Mexico in the wake of Max Verstappen’s tactics against Lando Norris at Austin.

The governing body is understood to have accepted that changes to the guidelines were required to close a loophole Verstappen has been exploiting regarding strong defending when under attack from another car, with other instances of questionable tactics also being targeted.

Motorsport.com understands it will present its suggested revisions back to the drivers for approval at another meeting with them in Qatar next month and because these are guidelines they can be used by the stewards immediately rather than requiring sign-off by other FIA bodies.

There could be a potential issue in that Grand Prix Drivers’ Association signs off on F1’s racing guidelines and the drivers are not united on the incidents that occurred last weekend.

Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas said on Thursday in Mexico that “some drivers are pushing the limits of the regulations more and almost like kind of taking the piss out of it”.

The usual post-FP2 drivers’ meeting for the Mexico event ran for an unusually long time, as, Motorsport.com understands, the FIA briefing and explanation of Norris’s penalty for overtaking Verstappen off the track late in their Austin battle was followed by a GPDA meeting.

The stewards of the Mexico meeting attended along with the team sporting managers as usual, along with the sporting representative of Formula One Management.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, battles with Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

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During the meeting, the drivers outlined their positions on what Verstappen has been doing, with some siding strongly with Norris’s point of view – expressed post-race in Austin and again on the Mexico media day that he was “no longer the attacking car, [Verstappen] was” – while others felt Verstappen’s tactics were hard but fair within the rules as they are currently written.

However, although getting complete driver unanimity is always going to be a tough ask, Motorsport.com understands there is enough support at this stage for the guidelines changes to be accepted before the end of the current campaign and following the Qatar meeting.

In a statement provided to media, the FIA said of the meeting, “there was a general commitment to continue to update the driving standards guidelines”.

“Bearing in mind the drivers requested the drivers’ racing guidelines and agreed to their introduction along with the GPDA,” the statement added, “each time they are updated it is consultation with the drivers.

“It is generally accepted that they should continue to evolve, not because of isolated incidents such as Austin, but driven by the desire to bring consistency to determinations and decisions from the stewards.”

The last significant evolution of the guidelines – first introduced at the drivers’ request in 2022 – is understood to have occurred after the 2023 Singapore GP and in the Mexico meeting while there were specific disagreements the overall tone of the meeting was collaborative.

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