Denny Hamlin says he’d rather be where he is than where Alex Bowman is

Denny Hamlin continues to dominate the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series field however admits there’s frustration with wins slipping away.

In nine races, Hamlin’s worse finish is 11th place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He’s now led 694 laps and continues to have the best average finish of any driver in the Cup Series at 4.2 second to denny is  Joey Logano is on that list with an 8.3 average finish.

“It’s frustrating for sure,” Hamlin said. “But honestly, I’d rather be where I am than Alex Bowman. I don’t care that he’s got a win; we’re smashing everyone. I’d still rather be where I’m at.”

This is the second consecutive weekend Denny Hamlin led the most laps in a Cup Series race however  was passed again in the closing stages.The Joe Gibbs Racing NO.11 Toyota car won both stages and led 207 of 400 laps Sunday afternoon at Richmond.

“Small victory for me in this journey” – Jimmie Johnson after his debut IndyCar practice

 

Denny Hamlin says he’d rather be where he is than where Alex Bowman is (in terms of the season as a whole) because “we’re smashing everyone.” Has an 80+ lead in the point standings, but no wins after nine races.

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) April 18, 2021

 

“You’re a competitor, you want to win, especially when you have a great opportunity to win, but it just didn’t happen,” said Hamlin. “I just got to digest it, look at it and see where we could have been a little bit better. But ultimately, there’s nothing I can do. My effort was as high as it could be. There’s nothing that’s glaring that I feel like I could have or should have done different.

“But maybe there is. I’ll go back and look at it, but it just seemed like the 48 had it gripped up there for a couple of laps.”

“We just didn’t take off very good there,” Hamlin said. “Definitely was the worse that our car took off after a restart. The 48, I’m guessing, his tires pumped up and he was able to take off there, get the lead, and then build a lead big enough I didn’t have enough time to get back to him.”