Denny Hamlin shares damning COTA verdict after – Sports News
Denny Hamlin spoke on the state of “lawlessness” on the primary flip on the Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
Hamlin is seeking to discover success at COTA as he seems to be for his first race win of the season. That stated, he hasn’t had the sort of success he would love on the observe, with an average end of 16.6 the final 5 occasions he has raced there.
With seemingly the whole lot having to go proper for a driver to win at COTA, the star spoke on how the primary flip can derail a driver’s day if their strategy doesn’t go to plan. His feedback come a 12 months after Chase Elliott was the recipient of dangerous luck, when he discovered himself spun round after the primary flip.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Hamlin started when requested if there have been particular unstated guidelines every driver adhered to when heading into Turn 1 at COTA, per PRN. “I don’t know if there is any. I wish I could say. I think everyone has the mentality and, I’m guilty of it too, as you go in there and you try to position your car that is whatever best for yourself.”
He added: “There’s collateral damage that goes on way out on the right side of you that you never see and so it’s kind of ‘out of sight. out of mind.’ And I think most drivers have that mentality is that ‘Well I didn’t hit the person necessarily in front of me’ not realizing that you probably jammed it in on three guys that are on the outside of you, and there’s some collateral damage there.”
Considering how many drivers take the flip exhausting at COTA, Hamlin admitted that Turn 1 is a part of the observe the place it may well seem as whether it is no-holds-barred racing. “It’s easy to have a little bit of that lawlessness with less repercussions at turn one at COTA than probably any corner that we’ve got on our schedule,” he concluded.
Turn 1 at COTA is maybe one of essentially the most harmful within the Cup Series, particularly because it pertains to crashes. In 2025, Elliott was the sufferer of being spun out by Ross Chastain, which ended his possibilities of successful the race regardless of qualifying third.
Hamlin, Todd Gilliland, and Connor Zilisch had been concerned within the crash as effectively. After the race, Elliott, who completed fourth, spoke to reporters about how he wished he had been capable of race cleanly, particularly after his robust qualifying begin.
“I just wish we could put together a clean day,” he stated. “It just sucks to fall behind that early. I thought we had a great NAPA Chevy yesterday, and I would have just liked to have seen how we would have stacked up to those guys today. That’s all.
“Just bummed that we get behind and have damage and got to fix it and it never drives like it did yesterday, and it’s just like, man, I would just would have loved a shot at it without having to try to piece it back together with the tow and all that stuff, but a great recovery for sure. I just hate we had to recover. That’s the part that sucks.”
The DuraMAX Grand Prix on the Circuit of the Americas is set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET on FOX.
Stay forward of the sport with the most recent developments within the sports activities world! Our web site is your final vacation spot for sports activities information, delivering complete updates, in-depth analyses, and knowledgeable insights into the fast-evolving realm of athletics. We carry you every day protection on the whole lot from breakthrough coaching techniques and rising staff methods to main bulletins which might be setting the tempo within the sports activities industry.
Discover how these trends are redefining the aggressive panorama! Visit us frequently for participating and informative content material by clicking right here. Our meticulously curated articles cowl game-changing techniques, investment alternatives in sports activities, and key milestones in right now’s dynamic athletic area.
