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Lessons learned, lessons applied for Denny Hamlin in Nashville win

This is the kind of win that Denny Hamlin has hated to lose over the years.

Christopher Bell had the fastest car of the race over the course of the Cracker Barrell 400 at Nashville Superspeedway and took the final restart as the leader over Chase Briscoe and Hamlin. Ultimately, Bell couldn’t defend against both at the same time, and Hamlin won in an unfamiliar fashion.

These are races Hamlin tends to lose, especially restarting where Bell did, and what happened at Kansas is a recent example of a race where he is still learning valuable lessons amidst his penultimate season.

“The 20 had us covered,” Hamlin said after the race. “I think he passed us about three or four times today. But I just learned from my mistakes earlier in the season and how I approach restarts. It really kind of started in the first corner. I was able to get -- go to the bottom of the 20. I didn't shift the car very well. He cleared but drove in really deep and allowed me to get beside him.

“For the next two laps, I kept side drafting then trying to drive in deep enough to clear him, and I realized he was not going to let me clear him.

“So at that point, I knew we were not making optimum lap time and corners. So I learned from my mistakes, and on the final lap, I said I'm going to roll the bottom. He's probably going to drive in really deep thinking that I'm going to drive in deep, but I'm going to switch it up on him and get a good run off instead, and it was good enough to clear him.”

Bell took this one personal.

“I didn’t need anything,” he said after the race. “I had the best car and the right strategy and I just did not win the race.”

With each question that came his way, Bell was seemingly at a loss for how to articulate this defeat and just repeated some variation of ‘I did not get the job done.’

The reality was more dynamic that that, however. Hamlin gave him a good push on the restart but then drove him pretty hard for several corners, which allowed Briscoe to make a run on both. Bell thought for a moment he was going to get a push from one teammate past the other but got taken three-wide instead.

“Christopher drove in there really deep and made it where Denny had to hit the bottom, and fortunately Denny didn’t clear, because if he did, I had no shot to win,” Briscoe said. “So I just tried to keep backing my entry up to get big runs that I could do something with on the straights.

“For whatever reason, off that restart, I didn’t have the turn I did earlier. I could get runs but not do what I needed to with them. They were driving in so deep, giving me every opportunity to do something, and I just needed to be on the bottom because we were just going to have to wash each other up the race track.

“I thought I was going to get the bottom and Denny covered it so my only option was to go to the middle and you don’t want to be in the middle. I got, surprisingly, to Christopher’s right rear and all of us went in there so deep that I washed up into No Man’s Land.”

Bell couldn’t defend both of his teammates at once, and that was the deciding reality.

“I know that (Briscoe) had a run,” Hamlin said. “I don't even know where he was until I saw a replay. I didn't know we were actually three-wide bottom. But at that point, I just said I'm going to roll the bottom, and wherever (Bell) goes, he goes, but I think that I can still stay beside him if I just hold it low and not try to drive in deep.

“I think that he tried to not let me clear him and he also tried to clear (Briscoe) and just went too deep there and allowed me to clear.”

Hamlin was literally shocked when he later saw how close Briscoe made it.

Ultimately, Hamlin won this race the way he has continued to win into his 40s and in the ultra-competitive NextGen car era. He is the most studious veteran racer of his generation.

“The cars are closer than they've ever been,” Hamlin said. “Now, no doubt that the Toyotas in general have a little more speed. When I say a little, it's nothing like the gap that it used to be when you could build your own cars and you had a new chassis every six weeks. I mean, you could outpace someone with your car speed.

“So I don't know, the drivers play more of a factor now. Certainly, the process that we have on our 11 car, I think, sets us apart from others. Then just I think it's our ability to keep learning. This was a great example of it.

“I don't know why I still have the speed that I have but I just approach every weekend the same as I always have. I keep a large notebook every week, and I just go through it and I jot things down that I think are important that are going to make me win next time if I fail this time.

“I don't know, I still -- I love the process more than I love winning, truthfully.”

He won Nashville the way he lost Kansas.

“I think there's many times that I failed in these restart scenarios far more times than this one success,” Hamlin said. “So just I'd learned from all the mistakes that I've made and knew why I was not good on restarts to start the year, and I fixed it on the last lap.”