Engine Failure Gives Denny Hamlin His Second Straight Last-Place Finish At Sonoma
3 months agoDenny Hamlin had a catastrophic engine failure while crossing the start-finish line to complete Lap 2 in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. The engine failure came without warning, snapped a five-race top-five streak for Hamlin, and cost him the points lead to eventual race winner Kyle Larson. Hamlin was relegated to a 38th-place finish, the first time he finished last in a race since last year's Charlotte Roval race, although he also finished last in the previous Sonoma race after a crash. Clearly road courses are Hamlin's biggest Achilles heel right now, as his second-place result at Watkins Glen last year has been his only top-10 road-course finish with the Next Gen car. With this year's playoffs having two road courses for the first time, Hamlin will need to work on this if he wants to finally win his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference