Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin started Sunday's Camping World RV 400 at Dover International Speedway from the third spot, and it didn't take him long to move up. Hoping to capitalize on the excellent starting spot and gain some points in the Chase, Hamlin made his way to second and looked to be a contender for the win.

Things started to go south for the Virginia-native on Lap 65 when Hamlin was caught speeding on pit road under the third caution of the day. The speeding penalty sent the driver of the FedEx Camry to the tail end of the longest line in a hornet's nest of traffic.

After a close call on the track with the slow car of A.J. Allmendinger, Hamlin brought his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry back to pit road under the fifth caution of the day on Lap 162. One of the only cars to hit pit road, the Joe Gibbs Racing crew quickly went to work under the rear of Hamlin's car.

While they were able to keep Hamlin on the lead lap and in contention, it didn't take long for the team to diagnose the problem as an oil leak in the rear end gear. Making the best of the situation, Hamlin was able to maintain a spot in the top-10, but not for long.

By Lap 243 the problem had gotten worse as the drive shaft finally broke, forcing Hamlin to the garage. The crew quickly went to work making the extremely hot and difficult repairs as green flag laps ticked away. In all, Hamlin lost 38 laps in the garage before making his way back on the track.

"We started out well, moving up to second place right away at the green flag then after that it seemed to all go away," Hamlin explained after the event. "The FedEx Ground crew did a great job on pit stops and fixing our problems. The entire time we were in the garage changing the gear and drive shaft there wasn't one yellow, we lost 38 laps - the FedEx guys sure worked quick though."

The mechanical issues forced Hamlin to settle for a disappointing 38th-place finish. In only the second week of the Chase, Hamlin dropped five spots in the standings to 11th, 193 points behind points leader Carl Edwards.

"We fought hard all day on the track and we lost a lot of Chase points," Hamlin pointed out. "Every race in the Chase is so pivotal. We need to go back and run hard next week and put this behind us. We just had a long season at Dover in both races - it is time for us to move to Kansas and work our way back up in the points. When we were running on the track with no problems, the FedEx Toyota felt pretty good - we'll be up there next week to get out of the bottom of the Chase."

While Hamlin is optimistic about his chances at Kansas, the statistics tell a different story. In three attempts, Hamlin has finishes of 32nd, 18th and a 29th last year - not the kind of results that will help this team climb out of the whole it now finds itself in.