Toyota GAZOO Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 12, 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 Bristol Motor Speedway.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Your next win will make you the winningest driver in the NASCAR Cup Series at Joe Gibbs Racing. What would that mean to you?
“It certainly is special. It is such a historical organization with the championship drivers. I’ve been there longer than anyone else, so that increases my odds. There has been a lot of greats that have ran through there, so it is certainly a title I would like to have.”
What is it about this place that makes a driver want to be successful here?
“I’m not sure. There is something to it, right? You have this stadium atmosphere – all of the sound is right here. It is the noises of the race track. The noises of the short track that you grew up racing when you were a kid. It is just on a much, much bigger stage. I think that is a big part of it and certainly over time, the fans are just right there on you. A lot of the tracks where the fans are super close to actual racing surface and the infield – it always feels bigger.”
What does 400 consecutive starts mean to you?
“I’m not sure. It is a number for me. I haven’t thought of it or anything like that. It is certainly very hard to do. I’ve done this for 20 some years now, and the tole that it takes on your body on the long term, it is very difficult to stay in the car at all times, and I’ve had to miss a few times because of other things. Certainly, it is great to be a part of the sport as long as I have.”
How does it mean for the sport to have venue that can have a baseball game inside of it?
“I think it is great for the facility, and they’ve hosted a few sports as well. This is a big area for sports – when you think how close Knoxville is and some other college football teams around this area, so to bring a major league baseball game is big. I don’t know that there is a lot of teams that are condensed into this area, so bringing in baseball – to me, it’s very similar to what we did in Chicago right? You are bringing the game to the people.”
How have you and your crew chief prepared for the traction compound this weekend?
“We are kind of assuming that we are going to have a very similar race to what we had in the fall last year. If it turns out to be something different, which I think is a very low possibility, then you adapt from there – just like everyone had to do last spring, but that is really important in a driver, crew chief relationship to understand – what are the things we need to work on, I’ve got the experience from last year to know that there are certain things I’m going to need out of the car if it is going to be a tire conservation type race. I think that puts you at a leg up in those situations – and one that we were successful in doing it. I have the upmost confidence that we will come here with a fast car, and contend and hopefully, find ourselves up front when it really counts.”
Can you talk about how much effort has gone into the 23XI pit crews?
“It is certainly encouraging to see because we have definitely put a lot of effort into it. Not just money, but effort. Whether that be recruiting people, getting to trust us that we have a process. A lot of the tricky things that you see on pit road these days came actually from 23XI – there is a lot of things that they are really being innovative in. It is exciting to see it kind of play out on Sundays. Knowing that your cars are contenders on the race track is one thing. Michael (Jordan, co-owner, 23XI Racing) has said for a long time – we are going to be able to sell the dream for so long. We are going to have to live it at some point. You have to be the dream. We can’t talk about how great we can be or gonna be. You have to be great. You can’t just talk about it. We really feel like we are taking the next step, and the pit crew is taking that next step to be better as an organization. We knew that we were building fast cars, but we as a team were letting our drivers down for a couple of years – that was just part of the building process. They understood when they signed on that this was something that was going to take time to get better and they were very patient with us.”
What is the challenge from a car owner’s perspective with 28 straight races and keeping people fresh? Is there a breaking point?
“There is always a breaking point. I think we’ve seen – it is harder and harder to keep people over the years. One thing that I do feel good about is our track record for keeping people at 23XI and keeping them happy. It is just generally a hard sport to be a part of because of the schedule and the task we ask our people to do, and how long we ask them to do it. It is really, really hard. It is certainly not ideal. I understand why we are doing it. We are going to cut one more week away from competing with football, but it is certainly really hard on people.”
Is it worth a conversation with NASCAR about having the PJ1 reapplied tomorrow?
“I think it’s good to apply it. I think some of the better races that we’ve had here have been when the bottom has been as good or equal to the top. The challenging races have been when it has been top dominate and you can’t move around. That is when you will see the accordion effect of – you will catch the lap cars and then no one can pass anyone. I think the PJ1 here has been a positive. I always wasn’t a huge proponent of it but after racing in it enough years, I think it is good for the competition aspect to be able to move around and have options and sometimes your car isn’t great in both options, both lanes – and that is really what makes the great cars show up when it counts at the end of this race. I don’t really have a preference whether they reapply it or not, as long as we all know ahead of time what it is going to be.”
Considering all of what you’ve accomplished, do you get value about new and different things you could accomplish?
“Yeah, but I try not to psych myself out too much about it because I think you sometimes put so much emphasis on those type of situations and you end up making silly mistakes. I just try to be as even keeled as I can. It is a new week. It is another great opportunity to win another race. If it just so happens that it is three in a row, that would be awesome and a very proud moment in my career, but it is not something that we set out to do each and every week. We don’t go into the season saying, alright, I want to win, at some point, three in a row this year. That is such a hard thing to do because all of the stars have to align perfectly like we saw last week. They did align perfectly for us. It would be fantastic – some of the greats in our sport have done it, and I haven’t. Just shows how difficult it is.”
Do you see yourself as defying the aging curve?
“I think that it has been different for everyone. Maybe, but I think people like (Kevin) Harvick were still – I think, was he 48 when he retired? He was still on top of his game. I think it is different for everyone. Some you get to 43, 44 the light switch goes off. You just never know. My drive is still there. Obviously, the performance is still there – I’m just going to keep trying to win all that I can in this window when it is still there. I think – Mark Martin, did it when he was 50. He was fantastic. There is no way I’ll ever make it that far for sure. But again, everyone’s body, everyone’s mind, everyone’s eyesight is all different and it goes away at different times.”
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