Denny Hamlin hit with back-to-back DNFs for the first…

It's now back-to-back DNFs for Denny Hamlin and there was absolutely nothing he could do to avoid either one. Both issues were mechanical, taking him out of contention at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend and now Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

At Texas, the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota dramatically caught fire before the end of Stage 1 as the engine let go. But at Kansas, it was a clutch issue plaguing Hamlin. He required a push start from his team every time he made a trip down the the pit lane.

But during a round of pit stops following Brad Keselowski's race-ending crash, Hamlin's car finally gave up as they tried to get it rolling out of the box. The car crawled to a stop in the middle of the pit lane and needed to be pushed behind the wall.

Adding insult to injury, that pit stop ended up being the final one of the race. He had almost nursed the car to the very end, completing 199 of 267 laps. Hamlin was running in third position at the time, but finished 36th in the 38-car field after the transaxle failed.

A rare experience for Hamlin

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Photo by: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

“Yeah, I think eventually just broke the transaxle trying to leave the stall there," said Hamlin back in the garage area. "Unfortunate for the Progressive Toyota team. Really fast again – just can’t keep it together right now.”

The good news for Hamlin is that he already has two wins this year, which has him safely locked into the playoffs. But before the issues at Texas and Kansas, Hamlin was enjoying an impressive run of 21 consecutive races where he finished on the lead lap.

Additionally, back-to-back DNFs is something Hamlin hasn't experienced since the 2013 season, but both of those were due to race-ending wrecks (Kentucky and Daytona).