Denny Hamlin, the top seed entering this year’s Chase, dropped from the top spot in the standings after running out of fuel late in Sunday’s race.
After spending most of the afternoon in the top five, Hamlin coasted across the finish line in 16th place and fell into a tie for fourth in the Chase standings, 15 points behind Keselowski.
“We didn’t get it all the way full on the last stop,” Hamlin said after the race. “(Crew chief) Darian (Grubb) said we made an adjustment instead of putting (a full complement of) fuel in the car—and you have to have fuel to finish.”
Knowing he was short, Hamlin tired to conserve fuel during the final green-flag run.
“Bad thing is, I felt like we could have run to third right there,” Hamlin said. “I just was having to run so slow to keep from running out of fuel, and we still ran out.”
Though the first Chase race brought a miscue, Hamlin feels he’s still in the mix for the title.
“You can’t have self-induced problems, and this isn’t luck or anything like that,” Hamlin said. “This was just us making a big mistake with our fuel again. It’s tough, but we’re strong enough and fast enough this Chase that we can make up 15 points easily.”
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