Next Gen car still frustrating Hamlin, teammates

Denny Hamlin would love to think that a visit to his home track will produce a finish that finally gets his season heading in the right direction.

The problem for Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates and seemingly all the drivers in Toyotas is they are having a difficult time figuring out NASCAR’s Next Gen car, making their extensive success at Richmond Raceway nearly meaningless.

Hamlin stands 22nd in points after six races and has failed to finish three races. With trying the figure out the new car, every week is like starting over.

“We are decent, but we are not where we have been for the last three years. We are trying to find that point where we are good, and we can build off of that,” he said heading into Sunday’s race.

Teammate Martin Truex Jr., who won on the 0.75-mile, D-shaped oval last fall, feels coming to Richmond means arriving with expectations but without much reason for any because everything is different with the new car.

“Whatever you think you knew and the way you thought about these tracks before and the way you approach these things — just forget about it, because this is a whole new ballgame with this car and everything,” he said.

Truex’s team has figured out enough to finish in the top 10 three times in the first six races, good for seventh in the point standings. Hamlin, who had 25 top-10 runs in 36 races last year, has yet to record any.

But, he said, it’s not time to panic.

“I think you can catapult up the standings really, really quickly,” he said. "If you have a couple solid weeks where we don’t get crashed or cause a crash, those things add up. We’re not happy with where our speed is at, for sure, but certainly we are not a 22nd-place team.”

Hamlin’s three Gibbs teammates qualified in the top 10 for Sunday's race, with Kyle Busch starting third, Truex sixth and

Christopher Bell ninth. Hamlin will start 13th.

More contact OK? Driver Alex Bowman said the new car allows for more contact with less impact on the performance of the machine, a point Ross Chastain

proved last weekend by beating and banging his way to victory on the road course in Texas.

“I think you can definitely run into stuff that would have ended your day in the past,” Bowman said Saturday. “We kind of got sandwiched in between a bunch of cars on a restart last week; drove straight into somebody and it would have completely ended our day last year.”

On the pole again:

Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney turned a lap of 119.782 mph at Richmond Raceway to earn his third consecutive top starting spot in NASCAR’s top series. It’s the ninth pole for Blaney in 241 career starts, and his third this season. William Byron will start on the outside of the front row.

XFINITY SERIES

Ty Gibbs admittedly intended to nudge John Hunter Nemechek from the lead in a furious lastlap battle with a victory within his grasp at Richmond Raceway.

He said he just didn't mean to hit him so hard.

“I was going to have to hit him. I definitely, if I could go back, I would have not have drove in as hard and hit him as hard to knock him way up the track,” Gibbs said Saturday after his third Xfinity Series victory of the season.

In a duel for the victory, the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates got physical over the final several laps, trading the lead and making contact several times until Gibbs nudged Nemechek’s Toyota in turn three of the last lap.

Gibbs won by just 0.116 seconds.

“I definitely deserve one back,” Gibbs said of the bump.

Nemechek, who is not racing full-time in the series and thus ineligible for the championship, wasn’t happy.

“Him and I will settle it Monday. I don't want to say too much and get myself in trouble, but I just got drove through.

“He didn’t even try to make the corner there, so ... racers never forget,” Nemechek said after finishing second.