TOYOTA RACING – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 6, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media on Saturday after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
Hamlin has won the pole for the second time this season (Martinsville). He also started first last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway on the metric. It is his 50th career pole, and second at Michigan (2018).
Hamlin had a flat tire in practice, and his team will make repairs to his Camry overnight, so he will start from the back for the start of tomorrow’s race.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Can you talk about what it means to you to earn your 50th career pole?
“Yeah, it feels good. It was certainly a little unexpected, considering the adversity we had during practice and knowing that my car wasn’t going to be quite optimized to where we expected it to be. Over the last few weeks with the rain outs, I thought that it was kind of taking away opportunities for us to get to the 50. I knew that the next one was that milestone. Glad we were able to get it done and certainly, get that number one pit stall and just kind of see where things go. We’re going to have to come from the back tomorrow and that’s going to be a challenge in itself. Certainly, this racetrack with the long green flag runs that you get. We’re going to have to have good restarts and we’re going to have to have the race play out just right.”
Did you ever think you would be in position to tie Ryan Newman with a number of poles?
“No, I mean, took me probably more starts to do it? (laughter) A little bit longer career there, so that certainly is an advantage, I think, a longer career. I’m not really sure, but, no, not really. I mean, he was the king of qualifying for such a long time. So, I didn’t know that he’s kind of next up on the list and certainly would be awesome to just keep it going. At least lets me know I can get some one lap speed out of the car anyway.”
How did the flat tire effect the underbody?
“Yeah, I was just trying to see how much we drug off. I’m trying to eyeball it. They got much better instruments to be able to tell, but I could visually see that mine had drug in spots that – everyone kind of drags, when you go in practice, you drag a little bit, but then I saw that mine was significant compared to cars that hadn’t had a flat, so I knew that that was not good. I basically shrug my shoulders to say, there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s screwed.”
Do you feel like you can work your way through the field?
“I mean, yes and no. I mean, if the cautions can fall at the right times, yes, as long as I get decent restarts, yes, but again, we’re going to have to get lucky in a few spots, I think. The race is long and you can certainly do it. It’s not unachievable, but also sometimes when you’re in the back, it gives you an opportunity to do, if there’s an early caution to do a different strategy to get up there later on. If anything, I was just trying to get a decent pit stall for tomorrow and I was very surprised when it was good enough, especially it was much lifting as I felt like I had during that qualifying session. It ain’t going to be easy. I know, if you look at last week, that all seemed easy, but things really fell our way, and they’re going to have to again this weekend.”
Can you take us back to your first career win at Pocono?
“Most of my memories come from rewatching the highlights. There are moments I do remember coming through the field. I remember the shock of when I went into the tunnel turn and spun out, blew that left rear. Back then, I’m kind of ignorant to know, well, what does that do to the car? I just kept driving it to its same capability. Truthfully back then when you had that kind of damage, it was actually a decent thing, for performance. It allowed me to really just be fast and I just remember, the biggest thing I remember is coming back through the pack so quickly that everyone would just pull over when I got near them, thinking about how different the racing is today, like it certainly would have been impossible today. It was such a great day and certainly felt like it was a big confidence boost and then we went back there, back then, we went back to that track like five, six weeks later or something like that and were able to dominate. It just gave me a ton of confidence every time I go into Pocono just because of that moment.”
Do you have to be patient or more aggressive tomorrow with your situation?
“Depends on the situation, and it also depends on how the race is playing out. So I think I go into it being patient because I don’t know what future cautions might fall that might help us, and then I didn’t need to be aggressive and put myself in bad spots to start. So, I’ll definitely start on the patient side, and then depending on how the race falls, where I’m at, at a certain time, then I might ramp up the aggression from there on, but I think patience is the right way to start this thing.”
With the point situation you are in, does that give you more time to be patient or does it not matter with your task is?
“I think it matters because it certainly is going to make it hard for us to get any first stage points. The guys that we were that are first and third are inside the top 10. I think that we’ll probably lose some there, but if you can somehow figure out a way to win the race, you get that jump back. So, I’m playing to win the race. I certainly don’t think that we’re going to play this thing to try to go get stage points or we feel good enough that if we get our car optimized, get the back of the car fixed back where it was. We’ll be good enough to win the race on merit and, if we lose out on stage points, then we got unlucky and we caused a tire to go flat. So that’s on us.”
Were you surprised that you got the pole with the damage?
“Truthfully was very surprised. I had a little mini lift and turn three and four coming to the green. That affects everything from start-finish line all the way to turn two and three. I tried to run up the racetrack, tried to get a little more momentum, but I felt right from the beginning that our car did not have quite the grip that it had in practice, but the conditions were as good for me that it possibly was for anyone else. I had the coolest racetrack. I was surprised to see the time on the dash when I crossed the line. I thought I was shooting for – I thought that was probably like a P 8 to P10 executed lap on my part. The car had a decent enough speed chunk in it.”
What has made you so good in qualifying over the last few years?
“Looking at so much information, figuring out, when Chase (Briscoe) got the pole last year, I think we were second or third, just looking at the little things that he did a little bit better than I did in qualifying. So just always looking at that stuff to try to gain hundredth here and there, and that’s usually the difference.”
Are restarts something that is eating at you? Do you feel like that is the weakness on your team right now?
“The obvious answer is yes. That’s where I feel, generally, where there’s the most to be gained, where I think that we’re the most vulnerable. If I can get that in a better spot by the time we get to the Chase, then I’m certainly going to feel better about things because the racetracks, the way they play out in the last 10, I mean, these things can come out to shootouts, and you can’t spit up five spots on, on a late race restart and give up those points. So especially when the 45 (Tyler Reddick) and Ryan (Blaney), those guys, that’s what their strengths are. So, I can’t afford to have that be such a weakness.”
Do you feel like you have to really knock out some solid finishes the next two weeks with back-to-back road courses coming up?
“Yeah, I mean, this is the tracks that we need to win races and make hay at. We’re going to go into San Diego and Sonoma, and it’s like, give me 15th, I won’t run the race. Just award that now, I won’t go. I think that’s just the reality. I’m just far too old to spend a lot of time working on that to get better at this point in my career. It’s better if I just focus my resources on winning at the tracks that I am strong at and just understand that those four to five races we are just going to be average, but if we can make it up, by winning tracks like this, on a regular occasion, it’s still a good path to a championship.”
I’ve heard they’ve added more corner workers. Is that a good thing?
“Which is good because, I mean, this track is massive in size, right? It’s got so many different corners and twists, and certainly, you’re going to think that this thing’s going to have walls on both sides because things can get hidden pretty easily. Corners can get disguised and you end up missing a car sitting there. It’s good that they’re putting more resources to that because we certainly need it on the road courses.”
What does it mean to join the 50 win, 50 pole club?
“That’s awesome. I mean, I don’t know, those are legends and then there’s me (laughter).”
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