Denny Hamlin had some interesting things to say about World Wide Technology Raceway losing its internet connection on Sunday. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin reacted to Gateway losing internet connection for the second year in a row.
“I don’t know how long it was out this time,” Hamlin said after mentioning the internet was out for an hour last year. ” Last year, Chris [Gabehart] told me, ‘Hey we’re running blind in here.’ …It was just not good.
“It certainly affects the teams, but I don’t know what they got to do to fix it for sure. But I think the track had power issues before. …I just remembered at Gateway they’ve had powers even before we came there. There’s something in the infrastructure they gotta upgrade.”
It didn’t seem like the internet issues on Sunday were long-lasting since the race continued. When it was all said and done, Austin Cindric won the Enjoy Illinois 300 and Hamlin came in second. Cindric won his first since the 2022 Daytona 500, and Hamlin has finished in the top five for the fifth consecutive week.
It looked like Ryan Blaney was going to win the race at Gateway, but fuel issues prevented that from happening. On the podcast, Hamlin revealed a theory for how Blaney’s team “miscalculated” how much fuel was remaining.
“Ouchy wowie and never had any indication of it,” Hamlin said. “No one on the team gave him any pause whatsoever and so they clearly thought they were good. They only put one can of gas in versus everyone else took two. Blaney was one of the first to pit so he was gonna have to stretch it long or as long as anyone. It was clearly some sort of miscalculation, or they didn’t have as much in the tank when they pitted as what they thought.
“That definitely seems like one of the more likely cases is that the crew chief, if he only puts one can in, he’s assuming there’s a certain amount in the tank already. … They weighed it. They will then do the pit stop and then after the pit stop, re-weigh the can. That way they know how much fuel they dumped into the car. So, my thinking is that one can in there – they emptied that can. The miscalculation came from what was in the tank. They thought they had a certain amount in the tank when they pitted, and they did not. They had less than that.”
