Toyota GAZOO Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
DARLINGTON, S.C. (April 5, 2025) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media on Saturday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
How has the throwback weekend changed for the teams and doing throwback paint schemes?
“Yeah, I mean I think it sounds good in theory, but you know truthfully, these guys are trying to find a reason to get a return on their investment. So, when you kind of change their logo or maybe change their colors and stuff, it doesn’t really line up with what they want. It’s just a sponsor-driven sport. I mean, I’m watching the Xfinity Series cars and I’m like, ‘they’re awesome!’ Because they don’t have this many sponsors, they can kind of do whatever they want to do. It’s cool to see from their standpoint, but yeah on the Cup side it’s going to be really tough going forward.”
Do you think we’re in a “spec car box” for future plans of race cars?
“I’m not really sure. Yeah, I don’t know where you know the next car goes. As far as I know, there’s no on development on any kind of new car that I’m aware of. Truthfully. I’m not sure I’m not sure where it goes from here.”
What are your expectations going into Bristol next weekend?
“I think that was just kind of an anomaly. We thought it was temperature, we thought it was all kinds of different things, but truthfully, there’s something that was different. Don’t know really what it was, but I would expect that we would have been the normal Bristol where your tires don’t wear that much, if it’s the same tire. Temperatures look to be up, so I would say that we would have kind of the normal Bristol that we’ve had you know most of the time.”
Are you worried about rising costs as a team owner?
“As a team, there’s vendors that are saying they’re going to have to raise their prices. The cost of Next Gen (car) itself has gotten so high in general. I’m sure (pause), it’s going to fall on the teams like you would think.”
What do you think the impact of the upcoming In-Season Tournament will be?
“I hope so. That’s the reason that you create these extra storylines. (For) these more casual race fans, it’s kind of a lull in other sports. You create these one-on-one matchups that the TV and maybe there’s a simulcast that is focused on those matchups and stuff. That really gets your sports bettor, that is again just in the lull of a season, with only MLB going on, it gets them kind of the juice that they’re looking for at that time of the year. You hope that it has the effect that it that everyone’s hoping for. Certainly, I think that it’ll be worth it just in the storylines alone.”
What do you see as the reason(s) for last week in Martinsville? Also, what’s your reaction to the CARS TOUR being on FS1?
“I don’t know, it really just went through a change a decade or so ago. Certainly, I think you know the format had a little bit something to do with it where you can be terrible all season, and just win a race, and all of a sudden, your season is saved. I think that say it a little bit of a role in it. Then there’s other things. The Xfinity Series is primarily made of pay drivers. Without pay drivers, I don’t know if that series truthfully exists. It’s not popular, no one here will like it, but that’s just the reality. This is just where we’re at and then eventually, they make it to Cup (Series) if they’re good enough. I don’t know, it’s just different. A lot of sports are different than it used to be a long time ago, but that’s where we’re at today. As far as the CARS TOUR getting on FS1, it certainly is really good for them. really proud to see what that tour has done and certainly how much growth it’s had over the last couple of years. Certainly, the way they run it, it’s very well organized I wish that it would have been around back in my day of late model racing. We had a kind of a traveling tour, but it was nothing like the CARS TOUR and as well organized as it is and certainly didn’t pay as well. They’re really doing great job to promoting that series.”
How has your approach to driving Darlington changed over time?
“I think that it has changed over time. I think as time has gone on, you’ve seen (pause) everybody’s so good at running the wall now or running close to it that, typically I think you can find good cars and good drivers off the wall. It used to be because not many people ran right on it for such an extended period of time, that if you could just run within a few inches of it, you would get into better asphalt than others. Now, everyone kind of runs so close to the wall that now you’re only getting the aero effect. But here at this track (Darlington Raceway), the speeds aren’t as high, so you don’t get as big of a benefit running right on the wall as you do it somewhere like Homestead (Homestead-Miami Speedway) that has higher corner speeds. I don’t think the wall has as big of an advantage as that used to have, but it is you know typically the fastest lane around here. If have a car that (pause) or a driver that saves his tires a little bit more, you can have enough disparity in speed to make passes elsewhere.”
Do you have like a natural confidence when you come to Darlington and is there a little bit more confidence proof coming off a win last week?
“Certainly. I think you know last week was a great week for the team, no doubt about it. To get a win early, just to start to get some playoff bonus points, that’s always a great thing. When we come here (Darlington), absolutely. I know what I need out of the car. I’ll know within the first few laps of practice whether it’s got the it that it needs to be good and if not, we’ll go to work on it. But the confidence I have is knowing exactly what I need at this track. I know how to enter the corner; I know how to exit it. I know how much gas and brake to apply to make good speed here. It’s just a matter of whether the car’s working directly on that day and if it isn’t, we can get it pretty close usually.”
Does the new partnership between 23XI Racing and RobinHood open up anything potentially with Klutch Sports?
“That’s an agency that RobinHood uses for their deals and certainly, the RobinHood deal is a great one for 23XI (Racing). They’re kind of investing already and Corey Heim and wanting to get you know partnership going with him, along with Bubba Wallace, and so it’s a great brand obviously to bring into the sport. They’ve actually done a lot of things behind the scenes with the sport for quite some time now. I’ve done some appearances for them in the past, so it’s good to really kind of bring them in and really have kind of that leaf now going to be on the hood of a car — it’s fantastic. Just a great brand to bring in and hopefully, we can get them the value they’re looking for.”
With Michael Jordan’s involvement in the team, has that opened the door to any NBA-related sponsors?
“I think that certainly Michael (Jordan, co-owner, 23XI Racing)’s brand and things like that attracts a lot of different companies to be associated with. This one (RobinHood) is not directly you know brought through Michael or his group. That was more of an agency thing, so all came together really nicely. Certainly, any brands that you see kind of promoting (pause). They got a big deal with Memphis on the NBA side. RobinHood does, so they’re just kind of now exploring the NASCAR space.”
Tell us more about the confidence you have and what it brings your team.
“I think it’s always good to question your confidence, because it forces you to look at yourself to figure out did you do everything that you’re capable of doing for the team? Are you constantly working on your craft? You should always second guess yourself I believe if you’re a NASCAR driver, because things evolve and we constantly go through aero changes, tire changes, car changes, track changes. Are you adapting quickly to that? Confidence is a great thing and it’s very beneficial, but there’s times you need to question whether you should do things different or evolve your craft. I think it’s important to getting better.”
Do you feel you have an advantage this weekend having raced at Darlington so much?
“This sport is so week-to-week, it’s hard to say that but you can’t argue with the results I would say that, certainly, it lends itself to the best drivers, best teams, all those things, right? I think it’s a great combination of you got to have everything. You have to have good mechanical grip here; you have to have good aerodynamics and the driver has to be really good with his craft. I talked about just understanding when to push, when to not. Understanding the length of the race is. Even though this is a 400 (mile race), it’s still grueling. I think Darlington is by far one of the most grueling race tracks that you go to simply because it’s going to be a warm one this weekend. It’s going to be mentally-taxing knowing that you’ve have to hit your marks just perfect at this track and then, just knowing the mental side of it, you have 35 other guys out there that’s don’t want to let you win. It’s really hard to navigate that, and it’s a track that you can’t get away from others. Usually other mile-and-a-half tracks, tracks of this size, it’s wide enough to where you want to go get clean air, you can probably go get it. Here, there’s just no escaping it. It’s just it’s really hard to get runs, make passes on people. It just takes its toll, or it has for me, on my body, mind every time I race here. As far as the veteran side, I think that certainly, it seems like those that have you had lots of experience with this track, (pause), I think it goes back to the question earlier, more than likely the guys that have been successful because they know that feel they need to be fast here and they continue to replicate it.”
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