Denny Hamlin's big win, Kyle Larson's costly error define Las Vegas
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
LAS VEGAS – Denny Hamlin didn’t win a race in the regular season, but he opened up the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs on Sunday just as he did the first – with a victory.
Hamlin led 137 of the 267 laps, including 85 of the final 100 on his way to capturing the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The victory propelled Hamlin into the Round of 8 (the semifinal round) of the playoffs, and now, he doesn’t have to worry about how he finishes in the remaining races of the Round of 12 (quarterfinal round) at Talladega and the Charlotte road course the next couple of weeks.
"I’m so happy to not have to worry about the next two weeks," Hamlin said.
Here are my takeaways from Sunday night.
1. Bad call for Larson
Kyle Larson led 95 of the first 152 laps, but a pit call cost him.
After a caution six laps into the second stage, many drivers pitted, thinking they could possibly make it on fuel to the end with very minimal saving or another caution.
Those drivers – most of the field except the Hendrick cars and a few others – got a break when the safety "chase" vehicle (a vehicle that shields safety workers who are on the track) broke down and had to be towed, forcing the caution period to extend a couple of laps. That allowed those drivers who pitted to top off on fuel and not lose much track position or just be in a better position to have to save less fuel.
"At the end of the day, in hindsight, it was a 100 percent blown call on all four Hendrick cars and I certainly own my part in that," Larson crew chief Cliff Daniels said. "We had a fast car, had a fast team. In no way does this take us off the path that we’re on. ... We blew it, but we have good cars, we have good people and we’re going to be fine."
Larson, who went all the way until eight laps remained in the stage before pitting for fuel, ended the stage one lap down and had to restart the final stage at the tail of the field on the lead lap. He could never work his way through traffic and finished 10th.
"You forget how hard everybody races back there," Larson said about being mired in traffic and dicing for spots from 10th to 20th. "It’s pretty wild.
"There were moments where I thought I was going to end up crashed or get frustrated and run myself into the wall. But we were able to mentally fight through it and come away with a top-10."
Larson still has a 57-point cushion on the current playoff cutoff.
"It was a terrible call," Daniels said. "At the end of the day, we were going to be probably two laps short from making it, so we really thought there was going to be another caution at some point or potentially a [fuel] cycle. ... We could have just taken the gamble on the front side to begin with.
"If you take the gamble on the front side, worst case is you give up a little bit of track position but at least you pitted. Pitting would have provided us so many more options than not pitting did."
Hamlin crew chief Chris Gabehart said they had to make the decision without much analysis because NASCAR opened pit road quickly.
"It really was the turning point of the race," Gabehart said. "Certainly the extra caution [laps], which you know in the back of your mind you're going to get them. It's not when you pit, it's how many caution laps you're going to get after you pit, what does that do to your fuel window.
"The way this worked out, there wasn't much time to think through all of that. I was very confident it was the right call or opened up options for us."
2. Hamlin now the favorite?
Hamlin is making a case that he is the championship favorite.
Then again, how much that means is debatable considering the NASCAR championship comes down to one race (Phoenix) with four drivers eligible for the title.
"It’s so hard to predict," Hamlin said. "This championship is made in one race. It's so different than it used to be.
"Our goal going into the year was to make the final four because it's really, really hard to predict what can happen in one particular race. But favorite? I don't know. I like our chances on a Phoenix-type track, that's for sure."
3. Busch salvages third
Kyle Busch kissed the wall a couple of times but rallied to finish third and now sits third in the standings with a 35-point cushion.
That’s a much better start to this round than the opening round when he crashed with an ill-handling car.
"When we got hit into the fence there off of [Turn] 2 the first time, it definitely knocked speed out of our car," Busch said. "We helped it a little bit coming to pit road putting the last set of tires on it and then I got into the fence again trying to get by a lapped car [of Cody Ware]."
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!