Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson feel lack of speed in pits – NASCAR news
The two stars of NASCAR, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson faced some problems in pit lane during the Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville.
Neither of them could win because one was fast and the other one was too slow in pits.
Jimmie Johnson lost his winning chances when he had to face a late race speeding penalty. Hamlin, who had won four times at Martinsville Speedway, got himself off the winning track after couple of problems including poor fuel mileage, slow pit stops and
bad timings into pit lane.
Hamlin was facing bad fuel mileage which led his No. 11 Toyota into pit stops early than assumed. The early fuel refill made him lose the lead at lap 318. An accident involving Brad Keselowski made the whole field through the stops and allowed Hamlin to
maintain his track position.
Hamlin was again forced to pit in under green flag after less than 40 laps to end. He was held down after the caution came out on Smith’s accident. He was clearly unhappy after all day long, short entries to pit stop. He was consistently beaten by his teammate
Kyle Busch and other drivers as well on coming out of pits.
After the race, Hamlin met and discussed for a long time the ways that could make better pit stops and strategies with his crew chief Mike Ford and owner Joe Gibbs.
One of the things considered were to have some other guys for the tyre changes. However, Hamlin was really seen frustrated at this point when the season is getting older, there are many other things to mange and look after in between.
Therefore, the team has to decide to either work with the present crew in a better way or find the guy that can do the job in a better way.
“We had a good car,” Hamlin said. “We didn't have a great car. It seems like when the track did collect a little bit of rubber right there; our car fell off just a little bit.”
Regarding the fuel mileage problems the team is likely to get back to the Toyota Racing Development to sort out the problem of getting back to the pits for fuel a little sooner than other drivers.
This caused the No. 11 Toyota to drop far back in positions including the cautions laps. The drivers got benefit of getting fast back on track ahead of the rest, which was the key factor to lead the race. He led seven times for 89 laps. Although he does
not have race winning machine but still it was good for better 12th place finish.
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