Wreck avoidance race ends with last-lap wreck for Hamlin at Atlanta

ATLANTA, Ga. — Survive and finish with 20 points. That was Denny Hamlin’s objective in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Hamlin was sixth in the standings, +10 points to the cutline, entering the race. Add in a less-than-ideal average finish of 19.4 since the track’s reconfiguration and he had his reasons to play it safe.

When the weekend began, the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team had a rough start. Hamlin put up a qualifying run that was over two seconds off the pace of polesitter Michael McDowell. Hamlin quickly pulled his Toyota Camry into the garage to diagnose the issue.

“They see a few red flags, certainly,” he told NBC Sports. “They’ll dig into it tonight, figure it out, and get it fixed for tomorrow.”

Hamlin rolled off 38th to start the Quaker State 400. The back of the pack was his chess move of choice for the majority of the race. He finished the first stage in 34th and the second stage in 29th.

After a late-race caution put the race into overtime, Hamlin found himself in the middle of bumper cars on the last lap. After getting caught up in a multi-car crash off turn four, he ended 24th.

Hamlin tried so hard to dodge “The Big One” but it couldn’t dodge him. He said he was trying to get 20 points “however we could.”

“Obviously, starting in the back didn’t help with that,” he said. “I thought at the very end, we got the Mavis Tire Camry kind of where it needed to be. But, by then, you were kind of dealing with a log jam of a couple of lanes that are kind of blocking things and you couldn’t go much of anywhere. So I just tried to avoid the wrecks. We did the best we could, and then got in a wreck that probably cost us eight to 10 spots or so.”

Losing all of those spots wasn’t really a concern for Hamlin, though.

“I did what I wanted to do and that was lay in the back most of the race, and try to see what attrition came about. Again, 20 points seemed really possible, but came up a little short of that today,” he said.

With the chaotic playoff opener out of the way, the No. 11 team will set their sights on Watkins Glen, where Hamlin has a solid track record lately. In the last seven starts, he has five Top-5 finishes, including a win in 2016. Last year, he finished second from the pole last year.