TOYOTA RACING – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Pole Quotes
JOLIET, Ill. (July 4, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media his pole winning run Saturday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Insurance Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
What do you think about having so much speed on a weekly basis?
“I don’t want to continue to underplay it, but we got really fortunate. The last 12 cars had full sun. The last few had like 90% sun, but I think it was the deciding factor. We saw right after I went, the track got hotter and seems like the corner speeds of those guys started to slow down. I think that if there was one more car behind Ty Gibbs they definitely would have beat us, but because it went full shade we got fortunate there. They did a really good job with my car overnight. We worked for a long time with the team trying to figure out what I need to go faster and execute around here. We did a mock run yesterday, that was helpful for me to get a good balance check. But generally these are great racetracks for us. And typically I have a really good feel of what I need. Yesterday my balance was as far off as I’ve been in quite some time. A lot of the test was more for Toyota and getting information for JGR and those guys. We didn’t really work on balance a whole lot and when we came here our balance was quite a bit off, so we fixed that overnight and got that better. I thought I ran a very conservative turns 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 didn’t quite hit it right, but looked like I got off turn 4 better than the competition. This is very surprising, truthfully, I was actually thinking that I would take the rainout in P19, but once I ran the lap I thought it would put us somewhere in the top-12 and I was happy with that.”
What did the lap feel like running a qualifying lap here for the first time since 2019?
“I ran a mock run yesterday on my last lap on the racetrack. It still didn’t match up to the race runs for the whole 23XI guys, they were so much faster. It gave me a good balance check of what I needed and we made some pretty big changes from that moment to give me a heads up of what I needed today. (Turns) 1 and 2 felt pretty good, and then (turns) 3 and 4 it was just good enough.”
Did you pay any attention to the Hendrick Cars? It seems they have been gaining in recent weeks.
“I would agree with you. I’ve said that they are right there. When I raced them at Pocono, I could tell. I raced every single one of them and their all out speed was faster, we just had a little better balance than what they had over the course of a run. I think my personal opinion, (Kyle) Larson’s the best driver at this racetrack, so he’s going to be someone to contend with and I’m sure all the other cars are.”
When you have qualifying speed, how hard is it to carry over that to the race?
“Not much. So many of our qualifying on these types of tracks are impound where you can change some thing, but here when I ran my mock rock it was the same as my race run for a few laps. What we learned overnight is something we will definitely take into our race tomorrow.”
Is this track more like Charlotte or Texas as far as how bumpy it is and any potential for things to happen?
“A little bit. Once you get past that one in turn 1 that seems like its actually bigger the further you go up the racetrack, once you get past that, the corner is actually pretty smooth. I wouldn’t suspect there would be too much trouble with our cars. Maybe the O’Reilly cars, just simply because of their aero platform, you probably have to be a little bit more careful being beside someone that hits a bump. The NextGen car, we are able to run closer side-by-side and not lose control as much. I don’t think it will be a huge issue, (turns) 3 and 4, the minute someone decides they are going to hold the guy on the bottom hard and low and that guy is trying to accelerate over the bump, that’s where you could potentially see something. That would be the one spot I would be careful giving the guy the extra foot that they need.”
You have talked about how you are more open now with your teammates in meeting that you were when you were younger? Would you say you give different feedback than you did years ago?
“Yes, I think that’s very valid to observe that. Joe Gibbs Racing got younger. When I was a little more closed off, I had Hall of Fame teammates in Kyle Busch, Martin Truex, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and on and on. I was more like I want to hear what they have to say. I have a responsibility at Joe Gibbs Racing, where I excel versus them is I understand what the difference between Friday, and Saturday and Sunday. That’s where I feel like the advantages and feel like it’s my responsibility to let them know what I think they are going to fight tomorrow because of the inexperience that they have. It’s why the Gibbs family values me as much as I do, because I’m able to go out there and every time Ty (Gibbs) comes over and it’s what about this and what about that, same with the 23XI guys sharing the information. I’m racing against myself with those guys. So it’s just part of the responsibility and I figure while I’m here for this little while longer I might as well open it up and if they beat me, they beat me.”
As a driver and owner, how do you continue to help develop and grow NASCAR in the Chicago market?
“I think it’s an important audience for us. Even when we came here for the test there were three cars with no logos on them and it was warm, there was probably 500 people in the stands. When I say 500, that’s in the middle of the day all during the day for eight hours watching three cars and maybe one car on the track at one time. There’s not much to see, but they’ve been wanting for us to get back into this area. I think this region is very important for us and we need to keep this region on the schedule once if not twice. This racetrack is going to race so well tomorrow that it will be hard to say lets just take it back off the schedule, but they’re up against it. There’s only so many slots and certainly can’t have more. I think that this racetrack races really well and if you look they did a great job getting it ready for us to be here. It feels like Kansas and looks like Kansas. They added a few coats of paint to it and now we’re ready to go race. So it’s hard to leave a track like this that has some wear and character off the schedule going forward and I appreciate Ben (Kennedy) and his team putting it back on the schedule after all of these years.”
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