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Denny Hamlin loses more ground to Kyle Larson: "We've got to execute better"

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A pit road penalty and fading long-run speed left Hamlin fifth at Charlotte, dropping him 49 points behind Larson despite finishing one place ahead

The good news for Denny Hamlin is that he earned a top five finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway, while title rival Kyle Larson placed sixth.

The bad news? He still lost ground in the championship, falling a further nine points behind Larson due to a lack of Stage 1 points. That was due to a pit road penalty, as a crew member fell over the wall trying to grab a tire that was rolling into the neighboring pit box.

Hamlin is now 49 points back of Larson, and with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell finishing 1-2 at Charlotte, they are closing in on him as well.

Need more speed and better execution

Watch: Hamlin on losing ground in Chase battle: 'We've got to execute better'

Hamlin lamented the lack of long run speed, commenting after the race that they "obviously tanked there the last 15 laps or so. Just didn't have the long run speed that we needed. I thought the short run was okay. It was decent. But I felt like we were a lot better when it was daytime, and then once it cooled off and the track got a little bit faster, we just lost the edge that we had."

Along with the pit road penalty, Hamlin also had to deal with having an unfavorable stall (due to the qualifying rainout placing him 12th) where he could easily get blocked in if he wasn't careful in stopping short in the box.

"We've just got to execute better, be a little faster, all of the above. But ultimately we're giving it all we've got right now," added Hamlin.

In a separate media scrum that followed TV interviews, he called it a 'lackluster day' for the No. 11 team as they struggled to keep up with changing track conditions. "I thought we were best when we were at the back of the pack. In that first stage, I thought we were really strong and coming on strong. But the track, just when it cooled off, it's just not what I really planned on."

Hamlin felt the No. 11 had race-winning pace for the first 100 laps or so, but then simply became trapped in the third-to-fifth range. And while Vegas was a clear missed opportunity, Hamlin doesn't categorize Charlotte the same way. Instead, they hit a plateau.

But where is the missing pace when JGR has won the last two races with Briscoe?

"I don't know. Yeah, I'm really not sure. I got to look at this race, but I mean, they (teammates) weren't (faster than Hamlin) last week. I was very confident they weren't last week, but we eliminate ourselves."