Denny Hamlin falls short of perfect race, but scores…

The bad news for Denny Hamlin is that he came up one position short of pulling off a perfect race on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

The good news is that he scored the most points in an era where that suddenly matters again.

Hamlin led a race high 292 laps in the Cook Out 400, including the first and second stage, plus the fastest lap bonus, but was denied a seventh Ridgeway Grandfather Clock due to two ill-timed cautions.

The cautions, combined with a gutsy pit strategy by Hendrick crew chief Alan Gustafson, gave Chase Elliott the lead and Hamlin could never regain the lost track position.

Losing the lead ... and a loose left-rear?

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Photo by: Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In addition to the newfound dirty air, Hamlin also reported a vibration over his radio with 44 laps to go. He did not use that as an excuse after the race.

"It just felt different in the rear that run, so we'll check it out," Hamlin said. "But no excuses, we just got beat."

During post-race technical inspection, crew chief Chris Gayle validated his driver's instincts in an interview with Motorsport.com and NASCAR.com.

"It looks like we had an issue with the left-rear wheel being a tiny bit loose -- loose enough he probably could tell," Gayle said. "There's some fraying on the pins and some wear there, so it was definitely loose."

In addition to the loose wheel, Hamlin also said passing got tougher as it got darker and cooler. Elliott had clearer air when it mattered the most.

"It's just the ability to have the cleaner air for the longer period of time made me heat my (tires) up, which is what I did to 35 other guys for the bulk of the race," Hamlin said. "So it just, once you run that dirty air for extended period of time, the car typically goes away."

Gayle also said the track taking rubber in the second half did not help their cause.

"We were a little tighter late as rubber got laid down," Gayle said. "It was a little worse for us, harder for us to kind of get back through there as well. To be fair, Stage 1, you might hit it right off the truck. And then you start the race after everybody's had three, four or five pit stops, everybody tightens up a little bit more, right? And so I think there's a little bit of both of that going on."

To wit, Hamlin was actually passed by William Byron early in the race but the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 just re-passed the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 in a way he couldn't with Elliott by the end.

"We were just really good in the first stage," Hamlin said. "I didn't want to push it and he wanted to go. I knew I could go right back by him.

"The difference is that I controlled that run for such a long time that my tires were in better shape than his was, even when he had gotten around me."

So basically, exactly what beat Hamlin in the end.

And while second place would have stung under the previous championship format, where each additional win resulted in five playoff points, this system is mostly about scoring points and no one put more on the board at Martinsville than Hamlin and Gayle

"For sure; it's just a gut punch to lead that many laps and not win the race," Gayle said. "But that's not really fair, right? If you do that consistently enough, you'll win your share of them, and that's about all you can control. I mean, it looked like we were having some issues on restarts, too, that Denny talked about a little bit. I think that was a choice with an engine setting that we ran that may have caused some problems and made it harder, so we could have helped ourselves there, too."