Denny Hamlin calls NASCAR title comeback “unrealistic” after Martinsville

Motorsport photoAnother weekend of what could have been for Denny Hamlin. He started the race from pole position and led early, but quickly fell through the field when his team's decision not to pit during Stage 1 backfired.Hamlin fell outside the top ten and failed to score any points in Stage 1. He was then buried mid-pack and failed to score any points in Stage 2 as well. Making the situation even more frustrating is that Kyle Larson faced similar setbacks and also ended up with zero stage points.Hamlin also spun mid-race, and lost more track position due to a poorly timed caution during a pit stop cycle.Hamlin clawed his way back to sixth, and Larson finished ninth, meaning Hamlin gained only three points on the championship leader. Mathematically, Hamlin remains in title contention, but realistically, it's close to over as he is 70 points adrift of the lead. The maximum amount of points a driver can earn in a single race is 76."Didn't capitalize on the speed that we had," said Hamlin in a post-race media scrum that included Motorsport.com. "That was an absolute killer for us. Our strategy did not work out, staying out ... had no tires left, and then got to start Stage 2 at the tail, because there was a caution that just was poorly timed for us. We just fought the track position. It took all day just to get it back. And then obviously the damage didn't help at all either."So it's just a tough day, but it was kind of a microcosm of what we've had in the last several weeks."Looking ahead to next week, Hamlin was blunt about his chances about mounting a comeback, as he knows there's a very narrow path to the title for the No. 11 team."Yeah, I mean, it's unrealistic, for sure," said Hamlin. "It needed to be in the 40s, something like that, to be somewhere viable. But we'll go there and do the dog and pony show, and weep and act like we can do it. But .. we just didn't capitalize. It's not a Chase where we capitalized, and certainly did not execute to our best ability."Watch: Hamlin's title outlook: 'We just didn't gain enough to make it realistic' Read Also: Carson Hocevar denies intent in Austin Cindric clash: “We were just having fun” Ryan Blaney says Josh Berry "lost his mind" in Martinsville clash William Byron ends NASCAR Cup win drought as Kyle Larson denied early title clinch To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.