Denny Hamlin experienced a career low in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. He was only able to complete two laps of the 110-lap contest.
The Joe Gibbs Racing legend has never led so few laps in his 846 career starts. Denny Hamlin is a 54-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and a possible Hall of Famer.
His list of accomplishments includes many victories in prestigious NASCAR events such as the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500, and the renowned Daytona 500. Hamlin has already won three races this year.
Unfortunately, when Denny Hamlin crossed the start-finish line on the second lap of Sunday’s race, his Toyota Camry began to spew smoke. Reflecting on the matter, Trey Ryan, a NASCAR specialist and statistician posted on X,
“Denny Hamlin completed just 2 laps at Sonoma.”
“This is the fewest laps Denny has EVER completed in a NASCAR race (846 career starts)”
As reported by NASCAR, the reason behind the mishap was an apparent engine failure. Hamlin, however, said that he had not noticed anything unusual before his ride broke down.
“No, I didn’t notice anything,” Hamlin told NASCAR. “Just trying to get up to speed, but no, that was out of the blue, for sure, down the straightaway.”
Reports further revealed that it was the third time this year and the 11th time since 2023 that an engine failure led to a driver not finishing a Cup race. The three instances of engine failure this year were suffered by Austin Cindric at the Busch Light Clash, Zane Smith at Bristol Motor Speedway, and most recently by Hamlin at Sonoma.
After having recorded five top 5 performances in a row, the veteran racer had to settle for a 38th-place finish at the Californian track. This sudden turn of events relegated Hamlin from the top of the leaderboard to third.Currently, he has 535 points to his credit. Kyle Larson, who owns 561 points, is at the top of the list, followed by his teammate, Chase Elliott.
Denny Hamlin misses out on achieving his Sonoma ambitions
Last year at Sonoma Raceway, Denny Hamlin started from the pole but crashed out of turn 11 after leading 33 laps. Although it wasn’t a crash that took him out of the rumble this year, his dream of winning at Sonoma remains unfulfilled for now.
Denny Hamlin has made 18 starts at Sonoma so far. His best finish here is a runner-up position, which came in 2016. The American has three top 10s and three top 5s (excluding the P2 finish) at the 2.520-mile asphalt racetrack.
Hamlin’s last six finishes at Sonoma before Sunday’s race were 36th, 31st, 8th, 5th and 10th. Hamlin’s next race is the IOWA Corn 350 on June 16 at IOWA Speedway. The race will begin at 7 p.m. ET and can be watched on the USA Network and Peacock and heard on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR radio.
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