Toyota GAZOO Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
DOVER, Del. (July 19, 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 the Dover Motor Speedway.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
What are your thoughts on running an open team and are you worried about Tyler Reddick’s contract and being lured away to another team?
“I don’t have any direct comment to that. All I can tell you, and this will be my blanket answer for all questions about this is, if you want answers, you want to understand all of why this is happening, come December 1st. You will get the answers that you are looking for and all will be exposed.”
What is the impact of the Brickyard 400 and what is the strategy of that race?
“There is just so much history at that track. Just the close calls that I’ve had at that one – that is kind of the last big major win that I don’t have on my resume. Leading with six laps to go, blowing a tire back in 2020 – just so many close calls. It is one that I’m highly motivated to run really well at. It is also always been kind of a showcase of driver, team, engine department – kind of everything. You don’t see a whole lot of surprises there – there has been some, but not a whole lot. Maybe a little more in the Next Gen era because qualifying means more, track position means more than it ever has, but generally speaking, nothing takes away from the prestigious of winning at that track. That is just something that is very, very special. The facility has so much history that you just can’t take away – no matter the circumstances or how you win it – you just can’t take away from the prestige of winning at the Brickyard.”
Do you have confidence you can win this weekend? What do you think the tire is going to do?
“That is the only kind of kink – chink in the armor with where does your confidence lay is we do have a different tire combination. I feel like we’ve done a really good job at adapting to that and understanding that this is a tire that we have had on a couple of the intermediates, but overall, I’m very confident. I feel as so, since I’ve changed my style of driving at this track over the last six to seven years, it has worked with all kinds of tires and cars. Yes, still very confident.”
Has anything changed that has made you second guess your decision to file the lawsuit?
“Not a chance.”
Have you talked about running open cars and what it would mean if 41 cars show up?
“December 1st is all that matters. Mark your calendar.”
Is it a big focus on your time?
“I would love to be doing other things. I have a lot going on, but when I get in the car in a few minutes, nothing else is going to matter other than that. I always give my team 110 percent. I always prepare – whether I have side
jobs, side hustles, more kids – that all matters, but I always give my team all the team that I need to make sure when I strap in, I’m 100 percent committed.”
Was there a meeting at 23XI or any message to the team?
“No.”
What has made Joe Gibbs Racing so successful at Dover?
“I think good cars mean a fair amount of it, and the second is – I was really blessed to have Martin Truex as a teammate. He was exceptional at this race track, and really the gold standard. As Jimmie’s (Johnson) success started to tail off, he was the next guy in line that every time we came here, you were going to have to battle him for race wins. Early in my career, I was studying Jimmie. Late in my career, I was studying Martin – those two guys were the guys I changed my style too and it has been better.”
How important would it be to get the regular season championship?
“It is important. It is something that all of the guys that are in contention are really striving for. It is something that – it is an accomplishment that we would all like to have. Obviously, it didn’t take precedence over the birth of my son. If the regular season was all that I cared about, I wouldn’t have missed that race but family has changed my priorities a little bit on that. It is one of the – I don’t know that it is another crown jewel, but it is certainly a crowning accomplishment that we have in our series now that rewards big sample sizes. I think that is why people would view it pretty highly. If you look at the guys that have won it, it has been the guys that have dominated the first 26 races of the season. There have been no flukes, no accidental winners. It is the biggest sample size that we have in the sport, so that is why I think it is the most legitimate.”
How do you feel like the In-Season Challenge went?
“I think it has been successful. I think it has been unfortunate, right, you probably had a lot of the top seeds get knocked out pretty early in it, but overall, I thought the implementation of it has been good. I thought the press around it has been good. We are talking – I think none of the eight had even won a race this year – so while it was kind of an unfortunate thing that you knocked out your top seeds and guys that people were probably counting on to keep their brackets going, I think overall it has been great for the storylines of the drivers that are still in it, and it will matter. I think the only – if I were in charge – it is just tweaking the tracks that it is. I think even the finale next week, you are not going to have a side-by-side battle of your head-to-head guys, just because we are going to a track where we don’t run side-by-side. It is just refine your schedule around – if you keep it – make sure you have these five on race tracks that could create a compelling thing to watch on TV, because even if you have someone who is – next week, if your top two guys are running eighth to 10th – they might as well be a full track apart. It is such a huge buffer on a place like Indy. Overall, I think it has been a good success, and I’m glad that they did implement it.”
What are your thoughts of being an owner to a driver that is still in the running to win the In-Season Challenge?
“I think Tyler (Reddick) probably knows that – it is probably as important to us as it is to him. He was able to win the driver’s regular season last year, and that was a good accomplishment. It was a good milestone for that team. He knows the importance of it and that we want to win it, and he is certainly highly motivated.”
Can you talk about the improvements that Tyler Reddick has made the last three weeks?
“Yeah, he’s closed in – I think he has now passed me in the points. I’ve had a bit of a rough go of it. They are kind of doing what they were doing in the middle of the summer last year where they made that run towards the regular season – while their pace hasn’t been elite, but their finishing hasn’t been elite. They are just executing well, getting the best finishes they can out of their car that day, and that has been the key. Really truthfully, people like him and Chase Elliott making this little run towards the regular season has really been largely due to them not beating themselves, and the rest of us just stepping on it.”
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