Denny Hamlin admits he would have defied controversial Chris Gayle pit call, if knew he Kyle Larson situation

So many have questioned the decision made by Denny Hamlin crew chief, Chris Gayle, to pit the No. 11 car on nine-lap tires, give up track position, and let Chase points leader Kyle Larson get back on the lead lap of the South Point 400. Hamlin has now addressed that decision, and it’s one call he would have ignored from his crew chief if presented that way again. The USA Sports broadcast booth questioned the call in the moment. Dale Jarrett questioned it during the race. James Small, the crew chief of JGR teammate Chase Briscoe, who won the race, even questioned the call. Chris Gayle’s decision to bring Hamlin in for two tires from the lead in Stage 1, shortly after he had already pitted, has drawn criticism. After the first round of green-flag pit stops, a caution came out for a Zane Smith spin. At the time, Kyle Larson was a lap down. Hamlin pitted under the caution to take new tires, but it put him back in the pack as others stayed out. Because Hamlin pitted, Larson was eligible for the wave around to get back on the lead lap, albeit on a tire deficit to the field. Hamlin was aggressively looking to get stage points and raced all the way up to P4 before spinning out and finishing well outside points-paying positions in Stage 1. The ultimate result: Larson recovers and finishes second. Hamlin finished P16. Larson grew his lead in the Chase standings to 40 points. Larson aside, Hamlin wouldn’t have made the call Asked on this week’s edition of Actions Detrimental about the pros of staying out there, Hamlin didn’t hesitate. “Track position,” said Hamlin. “The cars is fast. No one is remotely close. “That’s the pro of staying out.“ Hamlin went into greater depth about the decision, just from a tire and track position perspective. He used Saturday’s practice session at Vegas as his evidence. “We had ran 15 laps in practice and had a caution, and when we fired back off we were running just as fast as we did on new tires in practice. So I knew that it was gonna be difficult. “And again, it’s not like I got four tires; it’s I’m trying to come from ninth with two, and if you think about it, we knew that there was gonna be some cars that were absolutely gonna stay out because they’d only had three or four laps on their tires. “Well, I’ve got nine on my lefts now, and while I got better rights, I got worse lefts and worse track position. So, yeah, I think if you have time to think about it and all the things I think there’s no question that we do something different next time.” Hamlin didn’t know where Larson was at the time of the spin Placed back in traffic after the pit stop, Hamlin knew Larson wasn’t in front of him. He didn’t know how far behind him he was, though. What he knew was Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell were in front of him, and he was looking to get better points in the stage than both. He went high because they were both wrapping the bottom of the track. The car got loose, it spun, and damaged the splitter. Day ruined. “I think if I had known where Larson was, then I maybe don’t try to go up there. For all I knew, he’s right behind me. “Certainly, in hindsight, I wish I’d known what the bigger picture was, but my job in the moment was to just go get as many cars that I can. Every point matters.” He would’ve ignored the call to pit Denny Hamlin had no idea that Kyle Larson was a lap down either. Had he known that, he admitted he would’ve ignored Chris Gayle’s call to pit from the lead. The decision to pit completely altered the race, spin or not. “Listen, had I known that Larson was a lap down and he would have got his lap back by me pitting, I would have never turned down pit road. “I don’t care what the crew chief says, I would have never turned down pit road. But you’ve got to understand, you got to give my team a break too, and I got to give my team a break because they are focused on helping me get the fastest car that I can get on that day.” While Hamlin defended his team, he also pointed to Phoenix in the Championship race last year and not making the right decision on 2 vs. 4 tires when there was time to know. “They’re not sitting on the couch listening to the announcers breaking down the 5 car’s race. That’s just in the bubble of the racetrack; it’s really hard to put all that in perspective. “Listen, if we knew that when Larson took two tires at Phoenix, and we had 15 seconds to answer that, we didn’t, and that’s something that we gotta learn from, and we certainly have got to get better at understanding who we’re racing, what’s going on, and you respond the correct way.” Hamlin took responsibility for the spin All of that said, Hamlin took responsibility for the spin and ultimately damaging a race-winning caliber car. There was a “but” in there, however. “It’s not the team’s fault at all that I spun the car out. I think our day is still very successful. “I’m not throwing water on anyone, but there was no one that’s gonna run with me. I know what my car needs to feel like to win. “It was definitely a race-winning car. Now, I do think in the regular season I am NOT fighting to try to go get those last spots in that stage. “I understand in that moment I’m probably gonna win this race as long as I just keep this thing clean, but I tried to have a big points day, and I ended up making a mistake, and that’s not the team’s fault. “It’s not the team’s fault that I damaged the race car, but it did create a sense of urgency in me to go get it back what we just lost, but they’re not driving the race car, and they did their best to try to give me a car that was gonna win the race. “They did all weekend, and that’s what they were focused on. We just missed. “We took our eye off the ball for just a brief period of time, and then I took my eye off the ball at the end of that stage.”