Denny Hamlin was the fastest car in Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400, but the quickest car in the field right now may be Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet. Elliott, led 27 laps in Sunday’s race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, including 17 of them towards the end, but Hamlin caught Elliott and passed him with 30 to go when Elliott struggled to get through lapped traffic.

When pressed on if Joey Logano cost him the win, Elliott just blanketed it by saying he struggled with all lapped cars, not just Logano.

“I just need to get through lap traffic better.”

Hamlin, went on to win Sunday’s race, the 40th of his Cup career. The Joe Gibbs Racing drivers was asked for his take on what he saw of the racing between Elliott and Logano through his visor.

“I’m sure that Joey probably ran him pretty hard there,” Hamlin said. “I think most people would, given the Bristol situation. You almost as a driver kind of got to expect it.

“I don’t think it cost Chase the win. We had already ran him down. Yeah, we were in the middle of battling him, but I don’t think it cost him the race. I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. It’s all speculative.

“The way I saw it, (Logano) was very generous to me. That’s all I know. I appreciated that. I don’t think he really ran Chase hard. He just didn’t let Chase clear. I don’t know if he was battling right there for staying on the lead lap. Looked like two down.

“He just didn’t let Chase clear. If Chase could have cleared him…  I don’t think he really held him up, he just didn’t give him the spot.”

Elliott, crossed the finish line .895-seconds arrears to Hamlin for his sixth top five finish of the season already.

But, Elliott could very easily have scored five top two finishes in his last six starts overall though. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was running second last month at Darlington before Kyle Busch crashed him out with 20 laps remaining.

At the time, Hamlin was leading the race but on much older tires. Elliott, would have easily passed him in the next lap or two. Instead, Busch got into his left rear quarter panel, sending him crashing into the inside SAFER barrier and leaving Elliott with a 38th place finish.

During the caution, it started raining again and ended the race early. If that doesn’t happen, Elliott finishes no worse than second but most likely would have won.

The next race, the Coca-Cola 600, Elliott was well on his way to a win on Memorial Day weekend. While he was leading though, his teammate William Byron brought out a late race caution, negating Elliott’s lead and forcing him in a no-win situation where if he pitted, no one else would and if he didn’t, everyone else would have hit pit lane. So, he hit pit road in hopes everyone would follow. No one really did. Elliott, would restart 11th and finish second.

He won the next race though a few nights later in Charlotte then crashed with Joey Logano while going for the win with two laps-to-go at Bristol.

If those finishes end differently, Elliott is heading to Talladega, a race he’s the defending race winner in, with a top two finish in all but two races since May 18