Denny Hamlin opens up about pit road puddles at Talladega, explains why he spun out

Denny Hamlin fell victim to a puddle on the racetrack during Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Hamlin, part of a seven-car pack to hit pit road at once, got loose while deaccelerating to pit road speed and made slight contact with John Hunter Nemechek. Hamlin told his team he hit a puddle coming onto pit road, thus causing his spin.

Speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Hamlin explained how the puddle was there in the first place, as NASCAR has long dried the racetrack after heavy rain all weekend in the area.

“It’s a little hard to avoid because they weren’t there until they were there,” Hamlin said. “They actually did a really good job cleaning off the racetrack, but what happened is the track — it does get water underneath the surface through cracks of the track. So, when the underside of the pavement gets saturated with water, when we drive on it, it’s like a squeegee. It has to push water out somewhere. And the nearest path of any resistance is in any crack that’s in the track.

“Unfortunately for me… I just ran through a puddle and spun out. I was more worried about hitting the inside wall, so I just bailed and said, ‘F*** it, I’m just gonna spin through the grass, bounce off whoever I’ve got to, to not hit the inside wall. Didn’t want the kind of damage that would end my day.”

Hamlin rebounded after the spin before another on-track incident ended his day for good. On Lap 157, five laps after all seven remaining Toyotas pitted, including Hamlin, John Hunter Nemechek got into the back of Bubba Wallace who then nudged Erik Jones. Jones went head-on into the outside wall in Turn 3 in a violent crash which collected Wallace and Hamlin.

Denny Hamlin explains Toyota’s strategy leading up to multi-car wreck at Talladega

The crash blew up the Toyotas’ plan of running full throttle for the remainder of the race while the Chevrolets and Fords saved fuel before having to pit one final time under green. Hamlin finished P37 as a result.

As Hamlin put it, the plan was “gonna pan out great” until the group got stacked up in Turn 3.

“Instead of running half throttle, we decided to pit,” Hamlin said. “Then we came out of pit road and said, ‘Now let’s run wide open.’ And look at our lap times versus the field and it was gonna work out quite nicely. They were still saving fuel. Now, they would have adjusted their strategy for certain, but it was gonna work out nice to where once everyone else pitted, it would have been too late. We would have been in front, we would’ve cycled in front of them.”

The crash ended Jones, Nemechek and Hamlin’s race, however, it did help out Tyler Reddick. Reddick, not involved in the wreck, cycled to the front on the ensuing restart. He went onto win the race after race-leader Michael McDowell hit the wall on the front straightaway trying to block Brad Keselowski as the two approached the checkered line. Reddick kept it in full throttle and drove past Keselowski for the win.