Hamlin: 'Nothing I could have done differently' at Martinsville
Denny Hamlin is left still searching for his first victory of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season following Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin led a race-high 276 laps and had the speed to retake the lead on the final restart, but just couldn't hold back Martin Truex Jr. as the laps ticked away.
"I thought it was a matter of time," he admitted. "With about 25 to go or so, he already got into my rear bumper, kind of beating the back end off. It was just a matter of time."
He added that Truex was just able to turn the corner better than the No. 11 team during the final run, finally relinquishing the race lead to his teammate with 14 laps remaining.
Read Also:
Despite no victories yet, it has been a very impressive year for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. He's scored seven top-five finishes in the first eight races and holds an average finish of 4.5.
Even still, there's always been one or two cars that were able to best Hamlin in the closing moments of every race so far.
"Yeah, I mean, we definitely would like to have more (playoff points), for sure," he said. "But the way we're running, we can win any given week. We've just gotten beat by one or two cars each and every week that have just hit the setup a little bit better than we did.
"But it's hard to complain. I don't know what the record is for most points scored in eight races, but I think we pretty much got to be there (laughter). We don't finish any worse than third in every stage, obviously we're finishing in the top three or four every race.
"Just keep building on that, look at the positives, try not to be negative. Wins, we're getting closer. We're getting there. We just got to -- nothing saying we can't win the next three races in a row."
Hamlin remains atop the regular season points standings, but sits eighth in the playoff points behind this year's seven winners.
Related video

Chase Elliott is just fine with 'uneventful' Martinsville race
Gibbs talks satisfying, but nerve-racking Martinsville 1-2

Latest news
The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team
Saddled with uncompetitive Minardi machinery, Tarso Marques didn't manage to score points in his three partial seasons of Formula 1. But now the Brazilian has the chance to show what he can do in NASCAR, and explains the story of his comeback with new Cup Series entrant Team Stange
The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car
NASCAR’s new stock car generation is encouraging an influx of fresh blood into its top tier. But there are concerns that parts are in short supply as the entire paddock tries to build up stocks at the same time
How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style
After holding his nerve and hip-checking his teammate on the run to the line, Austin Cindric made a perfect start to life as a full-timer in the NASCAR Cup Series by winning the Daytona 500. Here's how the Penske Ford man emerged first across the line in the first points-scoring race for the much-anticipated Next Generation cars
Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season
There are plenty of uncertainties ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup season as an all-new fleet of cars take to the track for the first time. Ahead of this weekend's Daytona 500, our experts explain what you need to know
How NASCAR had to learn a harsh lesson ahead of Next Gen arrival
The NASCAR Cup kicks off with the Daytona 500 this weekend, but a major engine overhaul and a subsequent mountain of work has been required to be ready for the arrival of the Next Gen cars.
How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory
From villain to hero, Kyle Larson had to reach his lifelong goal the hard way and go through a very public shaming after a ban for using a racial slur, but his talents shone long before his name grabbed the headlines...
How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022
It’s not just Formula 1 that’s set for upheaval in 2022, as the NASCAR Cup series adopts its Next Gen cars that will cast any in-built advantages aside and require teams to adopt a totally new way of operating. Far more than just a change of machinery, the new cars amount to a shift in NASCAR's core philosophy
Why Bubba Wallace’s Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR
Bubba Wallace claimed his maiden NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Monday to become the first Black victor in the category since Wendell Scott in 1963. Both Wallace and Scott had faced obstacles and racism in their paths to their breakthrough wins, and NASCAR is trying to put it right with its range of diversity programmes