NASCAR CUP SERIES: XFINITY 500

November 1, 2026

Denny Hamlin

Pit Lane Interview

Q. Denny led laps today. Ultimately finished sixth. What was going on out there today? How would you describe the day?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, just really came down to stage one with us running the no-stop strategy. Lost all of our track position there. When we got to the back, then you got all those incidents, the cautions, then obviously the 22 got the 20, and the 20 got into us. It's racing, I guess. You're going to have that.

We just lost our track position. Once we lost our track position, the strategy, it's hard to drive back to the front. Nobody else did. Obviously got some decent damage there.

Q. You're not out of it mathematically. It's a very steep climb. What kind of an attitude do you take into next week?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, obviously didn't capitalize today on Larson not getting any stage points and stuff like that. Yeah, just the first stage. The first stage was the killer for us that set us back.

At the end of the first stage, not only that, we had to restart last because we had to wave around. It was just a lot of unfortunate timing of some things.

For us, this weekend, it was about everything to gain, nothing to lose. We just didn't gain enough to make it realistic.

Q. Some people would say next week would take a miracle. How confident are you at Homestead with your team to do your part?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I mean, I feel confident that I'll be able to go there and contend. I'd love to get another win before the end of the year. I thought it was going to come today.

We'll have to get one more shot at it next week and see if we can't get one more win.