It sounds cliché but there was nothing more Denny Hamlin or crew chief Chris Gabehart could have done on Sunday at Martinsville.
Short of winning, their fate was sealed last weekend at Homestead Miami Speedway when something broke and sent their No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry into the wall and out of the race. In one sudden moment, they went from a handful of points above the elimination cutline to 17 below it.
This was effectively a must-win race for Hamlin and he responded to the moment by leading a race high 156 laps with stage finishes of first and second. Hamlin averaged a 3.0 running order from start-to-finish and that’s where he took the checkered flag.
They simply got beat by Ryan Blaney and the Team Penske No. 12 on Sunday and couldn’t overcome the parts failure from the week before.
“I didn’t need much more … The 12 was just a little better than what we were today,” Hamlin said. “That’s just the fact of it. If you told me I was guaranteed to have the second-best car, I would have taken it and finished top three in all the stages and end of the race.
“That’s a really good showing. Ultimately, our fate was sealed when that powering steering belt came off last week.”
Hamlin had a shot, restarting in front of Blaney at the start of the final green flag run, both drivers outside of the top-10 as some teams stayed out or took just two tires. Blaney passed him and quickly drove to the front.
They were beat by the better team on that day.
“We were (far back), but you could argue the No. 12, he drove up there, right?” Hamlin said. “You don’t want to douse or throw dirt on the fact that he drove up from the same spot I was at, passed us, and then drove all the way to the lead to win, so he definitely had the best car.
“We were next in line. I just wouldn’t do anything different. There’s nothing I could have done, I feel like, through these playoffs to be any different, and then on a day when we had to have a phenomenal day, we did. Just it wasn’t good enough because we were in such a hole (after) last week.”
Hamlin has made the final four on four different occasions in the first decade of this format in 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2021. He was eliminated by Ross Chastain’s ‘Hail Melon’ move last year at Martinsville and ultimately eliminated by the parts failure at Homestead this year.
Hamlin won twice in the regular season this year and added a third in the playoffs in the Bristol Night Race. He averaged a 13.0 average finish in the first nine playoff races until his elimination.
“We didn’t fall short on performance,’ Hamlin said. “We performed fine, but luck is a factor in this sport, and when you take small sample sizes to crown champions, sometimes, if the luck doesn’t fall your way, you’re going to be left out.
“It just seems like I’ve just been unlucky in the playoffs. I can’t remember too many years where it was, ‘Oh, we’re not good enough to be in the final four.’ There have been a few years, but not that many. We’re probably fifth in points now, probably going to finish five straight years in the top five. God, we’re doing great. I couldn’t be with a better team. It’s just I keep crapping out.”
For his part, Gabehart isn’t buying into luck as a factor, as there were just too many things they could have better controlled.
Even that something last week.
“The things that happened last week, you guys are never going to know the details about them but I do, and ultimately, there’s no luck in that,” Gabehart said. “Luck is for weak people. That’s the way I truly believe it.”
He says he could control the things that ultimately eliminated them.
“This X factor, black cat crap, I can control having a car that is capable of leading every lap and I can control having a power steering failure,” Gabehart added. “And when I say ‘I,’ that’s the whole team, we have to be better.”
Hamlin has said repeatedly that he has made peace with perhaps not winning a championship before his career ends. He is 42 years old and just signed a multi-year extension with one of the top organizations in the business.
He believes he will have another shot or two at hoisting the Bill France Cup but simply winning and remaining in the mix is what drives him.
“I just want to get ready and go try to win next week,” Hamlin said. “I still love it so much because every week I feel like I got a shot to win. That’s what fuels my passion, even at my age, to keep doing this, is I’m with the team that I got that gives me such fast cars every week and gives me a chance to continue to pile on those stats before the end of my career.
“It’s not over by any means. We got a long way to go. Really happy about the year in general. I thought substantially faster this year at all racetracks than what we were last year. It’s racing, right? This is the Playoffs.
“You got a three-race season. The 12 (Ryan Blaney) car showed up this round, right? He deserves to be in that Final 4. The performance they had today was phenomenal. I’m just happy for those guys. One more week.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.