DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What does it mean to you to win tonight?
“It means everything to me. I mean, as far as I’m concerned, this is a throwback to my history – this is for Roy Hendrick, Bugs Hairfield, Wayne Patterson, Eddie Johnson, the short track guys that I grew up watching. This was a throwback to them. Back in 1985 and 1989, I was at Southside Speedway in the stands watching them race and learning everything I could from them and this is a throwback to them and their history. Rick Hendrick, I can’t thank him enough because he got the modified back together. He was very excited. Rich Hendrick actually got his first job on the flying 11, so hats off to him, my whole Sport Clips team, Toyota, FedEx, Interstate Batteries, Coca-Cola, the Jordan brand, NASCAR and all the fans. There’s another donation to safe driving kids leading all these laps, so this is a good day all in all. So proud to be back in victory lane here for the Southern 500.”
How does it feel to win this race as a father with one daughter here watching and another at home?
“It’s so special and to have the family around, the friends around, it means so much more and to have a two-week old at home –
I can’t wait to get back to her. Taylor gets so excited anytime daddy wins and this is – we’d like to make this a more reoccurring theme.”
Did you think you gave away a win after you missed pit road?
“Well, I got beat on the last green flag sequence – the (Martin) Truex (Jr.) came from a straightaway back and beat us out of the pits. A little bit of that was pit road and I think a little bit of that was my entry and I tried to get all I could and just flat out overshot it and so I knew by – I looked at my dash and I gave up about 10 to 12 seconds and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can,’ you know? ‘Were we going to win this race by 10 or 12 seconds? I doubt it,’ and so we just had to put on a heck of a drive. My crew chief, Wheels (Mike Wheeler), was motivating me every lap to push, push, push and that’s all I had.”
What were the last 10 or 12 laps like as you closed and did you have enough if Martin Truex Jr. doesn’t hit the wall?
“I thought I did, but the problem was there was some lap cars with newer tires that were passing us at the same time I was trying to catch him, so kept slowing my momentum and really those three laps I was all over the track. I was laying on the wall every single lap trying to do everything I could and, you know, I think we had them pretty good there and we just – it looked like he cut a tire entering Turn 3, but we were right there ready to pounce.”
What does it mean to sweep the Southern 500 race weekend?
“It means so much. I mean, this is the Southern 500. It doesn’t get much bigger than this. This is the granddaddy of them all. This has so much history. I’m so happy to be in victory lane at Darlington. This is where I got my very first start in Joe Gibbs Racing, so this track, these fans means a lot to me.”
