Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

NASHVILLE (June 19, 2021) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to media prior to the Nashville race weekend earlier today:

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How does the track feel?

“It feels like a new track. I don’t know if I remember a whole lot from 14 years ago or when I last drove here. It’s a difference experience. I’m learning as I go. It’s definitely driving differently. Obviously, the groove is a lot wider. Just figuring it out.”

What’s your overall impression of seeing this place 10 years later?

“I know the staff that the Dover people hired to clean this place up – they did a great job doing that. The amenities, I think, they really updated good and there looks like there is a lot of fan stuff out there. It’s really good. They did a good job at getting this place caught up to speed.

It looks like you were the only Toyota in the top-10. What are you lacking?

“Just speed to the Chevys. We are off a ways for sure. My objective is to just get my car as good as I can get it. If I can’t run with them, I can’t run with them. If there are four cars in particular that are faster than us, then it’s my job to finish fifth.”

They put a resin down on the track to widen the groove. How much effect has that resin had on the track?

“It really rubbered in the track pretty early. It was black before cars even hit the track. The resin that they put down with the tires that they drug blackened the track to allow it to get wider. It seems like the wider the track is getting the faster it’s getting. That will eventually even out, where you will be running multiple grooves all over the place, but concrete in general is very, very tough to race on, so I think they did a good job getting this track where it’s wide enough that it’s not going to be single groove.”

How much has the charter market changed this week?

“It’s tough to say. I don’t think it really changed a whole lot, to be honest with you. I think it’s in the realm of what everyone thought that would happen. I heard rumblings of which team was going to purchase what. The buyers and the sellers are all still in play. I don’t think yesterday changed a whole lot.”

Did it set the price point?
“Maybe. It’s tough to say. If it is, we made a hell of an investment last year. It’s tough to say if that is case or not. You still have the certain group of guys that come in to the sport. We want to be a part of expanding, whether or not, depends on if we have a guaranteed spot in the field.”

You wouldn’t run as an open car?

“We would entertain it. A lot depends on what we see the charter future going. The model still requires you to put significant sponsor dollars on the car if you want to compete. If you just want to ride around, then that’s a whole different business model. If you want to compete, it still requires you to get eight-figure plus, plus, plus sponsor money in order to compete with the guys that have businesses that can put their thumb on you at any time.”

Is that a different mindset than you had in Charlotte?

“I mean, I think that we are weighing all of the options and obviously the charter agreement goes to ’24, so we have to make sure we are making a sound investment for the next three years, because we cannot predict what happens beyond that, whether it gets renewed or the model changes or if they shift money around from the middle to the bottom or the top, who knows. So, we have to weigh all of those options. I’ve spent a decent amount of time in this sport making a decent amount of money. I don’t want to piss it all away right away.”

Do you have a timeline?

“In our head. I wouldn’t say what that is, though. Again, I think if I put all of the pieces together before the charter – and they all come together nicely, than I don’t think that I absolutely, positively have to have one. I think we are in a little bit of a bubble, so they are many people with their hand on the panic button, but theirs is much closer than mine is to it.”

Do you think NASCAR would take the 51 charter away?
“It depends whether you enforce the rule or not. The rule is put in there.”

Do you expect them to enforce the rule?

“They enforce all of the other rules. I wouldn’t see why they wouldn’t that one. As I see it, if you are in the bottom three for consecutive years and you haven’t worked yourself out of it, if there are new teams that want to come into the sport, maybe that gets put up for auction.”

Is that what happens?

“Yeah.”

So, then it becomes a bidding war?

“Yep.”

Creative bidding war or straight cash?

“I don’t know about all of that. I don’t know. I haven’t had those conversations to figure out how it works, but I certainly know there is a rule in place. You would think they would enforce it, especially with the demand to come into the sport. It would seem like they would want that, especially if the competitive teams that want to come into the sport, teams that are going to bring something into the sport, possibly new sponsors into the sport, it would seem like they would want that. I wouldn’t see why they wouldn’t enforce that.”

But you don’t want it to get it to that point, to have your fate put in someone else’s hands?
“Exactly, you are just in a bidding war at that point, you won’t know where it all stacks up. By the way, who gets all of that money. That’s my next question.”

Isn’t already a bidding war?

“Maybe. I don’t know that multiple teams have put in bids on one charter yet. I don’t know – maybe they have, I’m not sure. But we haven’t.”

Did you talk to Spire?

“I had initial conversations with Spire, but it didn’t really go too far, but they voiced interest in selling, so somebody with interest was going to come in there and offer them something.”

Do you worry about being slower this week, since this track isn’t in the Playoffs?

“It always matters if you are slow, but it’s my job to get all that it’s capable of. If it’s capable of running fifth, then I need to make sure it needs to run fifth. I need to beat my teammates and everybody else in the field. It’s a tough ask, but right now it appears that there’s a few cars that are a couple tenths faster than everyone else. It’s not by accident. These four didn’t all just learn how to be the fastest drivers in the sport, although they deserve their due credit for that. They’ve got an advancement, whatever it may be, it’s beating all of us right now.”

What’s the motivation in chasing speed at these tracks that are not in the Playoffs?

“We are going to get better. We always play the game to try to get better at the right time, so I’m not worried. Again, there is a panic button. I’m not really there yet. Frustrated, yeah, because you want to go to the racetrack and know that you’ve got a car capable of being the fastest, but again, we’ve got a few weeks to really start looking at that and say okay, we really have to catch up here.”

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