Darkness falls on Denny Hamlin's hopes
HOMESTEAD, Fla. - When the sun went down at Homestead Miami Speedway, Denny Hamlin found another level of speed. But then, just as quickly, it was gone, and with it Hamlin's best chance at a championship.
Hamlin enters every season as a decent dark-horse bet to win a championship, but it's been four years since he was a serious threat. Four years ago in advance of the Homestead season finale, Hamlin saw his best chance to win a championship evaporate beneath the wheels of Jimmie Johnson's relentless 48.
It's taken four years, a bit of luck, and a lot of consistency, but Hamlin once again returned to the ranks of legit championship competitors this year by making the field of the championship finale. He'd begun the year strong, winning all the preliminary Speedweeks events and finishing second to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Daytona 500.
Hamlin missed one race when an eye infection, later revealed to be a piece of metal, then won his lone race of the year at Talladega. That put him in position to make the Chase, nine consistent but largely below-the-radar Chase races put him in position to challenge for the championship, and sunset at Homestead put him in position to win it.
As the day grew darker and the track grew cooler, Hamlin found a decided advantage over Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman, his rivals for the Cup. Inside 20 laps remaining, however, darkness fell faster than Hamlin could drive.
"I thought our car really came into its own as soon as it went dark, and I thought we had the best car, and we just struggled with restart speed," Hamlin said after the race. "Kind of the theme of the year ... we don't have the all-out speed that those guys have, and with that, it put me in some tough spots on restarts."
In the end, Hamlin simply couldn't keep up with Harvick, or Newman for that matter, and slid all the way to seventh.
"There's not one thing I would have done different," Hamlin said afterward. "We brought a car that was capable of winning. I just don't know how to express it enough. Sometimes breaks go your way, sometimes they don't."
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.
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