Denny Hamlin admits he’s ‘concerned’ about an out of control factor threatening his NASCAR championship hopes

Denny Hamlin cut a despondent look as mechanical gremlins derailed his efforts at Martinsville Speedway. During Sunday's Xfinity 500, Hamlin had his third DNF of the season due to engine issues.

Hamlin began the weekend with a starter problem that hampered his qualifying session. He secured a respectable P5 start and backed it up with a strong run in second place. However, his momentum was cut short when smoke billowed out of his No.11 Toyota in the final stage, forcing him to end his day with 64 laps left.

Less than 40 laps prior, his JGR teammate Chase Briscoe had endured a similar fate, as he too had an apparent engine failure that caused a DNF. Furthermore, another Toyota driver, Riley Herbst, retired with an engine issue as well.

The situation is not new to Hamlin, since he previously had his engine blow up in flames at Texas Motor Speedway. Now that he's a championship contender, the issue is more glaring than ever before.

"I’m obviously concerned (about the mechanical problems), but there's obviously nothing I can do about it. We’ll live with it and hopefully we’ll get back next week and we are just going to have to see how it goes. I’m confident in the speed that we’ll have next week," Hamlin said via NBC Sports. "We’ll bring our best, hopefully it lasts. Everything was fine and then it just lost power into turn one and that was it. No noises or anything, but just silence because it wasn’t running," he added.

Denny Hamlin enters the championship race at Phoenix as the winningest driver this season. He'll fight the likes of William Byron, Kyle Larson, and first-time final four driver, Chase Briscoe.

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Denny Hamlin details 'downside' of competing with teammate at Phoenix

Denny Hamlin recently went over the pitfalls of having a teammate in the title fight. According to the Cup Series veteran, Chase Briscoe benefits from the shared experimentation of setup and data.

In an episode of his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin said,

“The downside is one of my competitors will know what I have. More than likely at some point we will run each other's setups to see 'what does he like?', 'what's he gonna go into this weekend with?'....Puts more pressure on me to go out and get it done.”

Denny Hamlin came close to a win in his last outing at Phoenix Raceway. While Christopher Bell came out the victor, Hamlin finished second. Briscoe, meanwhile, got caught up in a multi-car wreck near 15th position and retired from the race on lap 98. The incident triggered the fifth caution of the day, marking the first time that so many had come out within the opening 100 laps at Phoenix.

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Edited by Vignesh Kanna