Toyota GAZOO Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
LAS VEGAS (October 11, 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 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 ampm Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
What do you need to know about the point situation and why is it important?
“Yeah, I mean, I haven’t heard what those guidelines are. Why it’s important is because ultimately, if, for instance, you know, someone is allowed to go into Martinsville, and we’ve seen this. This is not something – what happened last week is not new. We’ve primarily seen it mostly, at the lower levels at Martinsville, those cut off races were people wiping each other out. That’s, you know, I would like to know if I’m vulnerable spot, that the person behind me is emboldened to make a bold move and then put me broadside in the middle of the racetrack to get you, because there was no caution, by the way. I mean, we were just kind of sitting in the middle of the racetrack backwards. So, which I think it’s important to know that, and then I don’t see any reason why I can’t know what the point situation is. I’ve always asked what the point situation is. I didn’t in this third stage. I think the team gave me an update at the end of the second stage, simply because I was restarting, I believe, behind Chase Briscoe and someone else and they were saying at the time, Briscoe was close. So, at that point, I don’t want to put him in a bad spot. I know I’m basically in, and so I think that’s important information to know. So I don’t, I think that if you see through evidence, there’s clear manipulation going on, I don’t think what gets said on the radio should really matter is, I mean, everyone has, eyes and ears, and so you should be able to see when someone deliberately does something to manipulate the finish. It’s a weird one in my case because I had no dog in that fight. I had no allegiance to either party, and so at that point, my question would be is do I have a right to then choose my competitor? That’s an interesting one to ask, that I truthfully still don’t know the answer to.”
Do you see the other side?
“Yeah, I mean, maybe, but all situations are different. If you watch a college football game today, there’s just going to be a spread. Somebody will be leading with three seconds on the clock, and they’re going to run backwards into the end zone and get a safety. It could change what money’s changed hands. So, like, they chose what’s best strategy for them. They didn’t care about your bets or whatever it might be, right? I think there’s some of this sensitivity around this is obviously probably gambling focused because I know that you, NASCAR is very, very sensitive as they should be with that to make sure everyone’s getting a fair shape. But on the racetrack, I feel as though as long as you’re you don’t have a bias to one party or another, I don’t know why you can’t make the best decision for yourself. But, you know, because it’s the points are about to reset, you know what I mean? That was a cutoff race for me personally. Whether I finish 17th or 18th meant zero, nothing. At that point, then I actually gained the advantage by being able to choose if I so choose, if I wanted to. I don’t know whether that’s – I still don’t know whether that’s acceptable or not. It was very weird situation. It was a very unique one. It may or may not come up again at some point. I’m more wondering what is going to be allowed people going to be allowed to intentionally wreck? I said on my podcast that I what I did to (Ross) Chastain at Phoenix. I don’t know how it’s any different whatsoever. I’m not saying there should be a penalty for Ross or anything, but an intentional wreck is an intentional wreck. What’s the difference? I certainly would like that clarification sooner and more later, so we all know what to expect.”
What do you think about the depth of the drivers in the Round of 8?
“I mean, it says a lot about the depths of the teams, for sure. I mean, the top of each manufacturer have cars represented. The more you try to make it common, still the resources and the best drivers are going to find their way to the top. It certainly is very, very tight from top to bottom and again, we’ve got really two races to make it. Talladega is going to be a coin flip for all of us. So, we have two races to try to execute the best we can and hopefully speed wins out. Hopefully you don’t get unlucky. That’s going to be the difference. Someone’s going to get lucky and someone’s going to get unlucky to either make or not make the Final Four.”
So, looking back to last week, would you like NASCAR to also clarify if you are allowed not to pass Ross Chastain?
“Yeah, there’s the two questions. Am I allowed to make a decision, being that I have no allegiance to either, because I would argue that I earn the right to decide. They put themselves, unfortunately, in a vulnerable spot where I get to decide. But it’s no, how’s it any different than like superspeedway? If I know I can’t win, I’m picking which car I’m going to push to the finish. I’m probably going to push the one that I think is I don’t want to get five bonus points, so we always have those scenarios where we’re picking and choosing who were helping, but that and the wrecking for sure.”
How big is Talladega being in this round versus in a different round?
“I think it does for our standpoint and it will for everyone. I mean, if you leave here in a hole, then you’re now counting on a good Talladega race and you can’t really count on that. You might as well budget yourself to finish 25th in points with those stage points. That’s like a realistic, you know, how many points usually you’re going to get when you go to that race rack, unless you get fortunate. So this racetrack to me is certainly probably the most important.”
What are the tangible benefits if you were to win tomorrow?
“Obviously, you know, to shift most of your resources to Phoenix is certainly a benefit. You know, no one’s going to go do simulation for Talladega, but they are, if you don’t win here, you’re going to start working on Martinsville right away. All eight, well, if one of us wins, seven of us will be spending more time on Martinsville, where that one is now got an extra week on Phoenix. It’s not two weeks like to advertise sometimes in the media. You don’t really have a two-week advantage. It’s one week. You’re really just skipping Martinsville. So, I think it certainly is an advantage. It’s absolutely an advantage. Is it a substantial one? I don’t know. I’d have to see the numbers, but it seems like those that have locked in early to the final four and has run really well or won the championship. So, yeah, I think that I think that’s why this one is so big for all the teams. I mean, Martinsville is big. Don’t get us wrong, because none of us know until we get to that point, but it’s, yeah, this one is certainly one that either want to have a massive points today or you need to go out there and win it.”
Do you think that the Toyotas can recreate the magic that you had in Kansas?
“Yeah, I hope so. I mentioned to our team that, you know, if we can just bottle up what we had there and bring it here and certainly the tires were the same, but you know, we got radius of corners that are different, banking that is a little different, track surface is a little different. It’s hard to say that because it’s the same tire, it’s all going to work out here, you can’t, but I certainly made it very clear that whatever combination we had with that type of track, enter all your X’s and O’s of the differences of this track and then refigure it out to come to that same result, because obviously our Kansas car was extremely strong and Vegas has been hit or best. I mean, I remember going through a three-year period where I felt like I should have won every race and then over the last few, we’ve just been kind of mediocre, and mediocre for us is fifth to 10th. So hopefully this is one of those weeks where we we’ve got to figure it out but certainly I’ve been very encouraged by our speeds on these types of tracks in general. But, this track more than others – race history matters. Because it’s so unique, because of those bumps and this surface that it seems like teams that it didn’t matter if they ran well at Kansas or not, they come here, they’ve got a great baseline and they’re fast. So, I think race history means more here than the correspondence to Kansas results.”
If you could choose one of the next race to be number 60, which one would you chose?
“Probably this one. Simply because t would be the advantage we talked about for Phoenix. I would be sleeping well for two weeks, being well rested and you know, stress free, going into Phoenix, and it’s a great city to win it. I like to stay an extra night.”
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