Denny Hamlin: We Don't 'Deserve' Chase

Denny Hamlin is no stranger to letting his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team have it when things don't go well.

Back in 2007, he was none too happy with his pit crew after he deemed they lost two or three races for him early in the season. Sunday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway, Hamlin was disappointed with both the team's performance and other factors that left him with a 39th-place finish.

Just five laps from the end, Hamlin blew an engine to bring out the race's final caution. On a TV interview after coming to the garage, he didn't mince words.

"We came here with a new engine package," Hamlin said. "We're a bubble driver and we've made stupid choices. At this point we don't even deserve to be in the Chase."

You can't really blame the guy and his assessment of the "stupid choices" in that situation. Hamlin would have had a Top-15 finish had his No. 11 not blown up.

Can you imagine what the No. 11 in-car radio traffic sounded like as Hamlin coasted in? Salty would have been a good, descript word I bet.

The 39th-place finish pushed Hamlin to 12th in points -- the edge of the Chase to the Championship cutoff -- and only 26 points ahead of Clint Bowyer and David Ragan who are tied for 13th points-wise.

Luckily for Hamlin, he's got two short tracks (Bristol and Richmond) remaining before the Chase cutoff and he shouldn't struggle when the series heads to California in two weeks. Richmond, without a doubt, will see Hamlin have one of the top cars after he led 381 laps of the 410-lap event back in May.

A cut tire took him out of that race just laps from the end.