TOYOTA RACING – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
LAS VEGAS (October 3, 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 Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
A few stats on this qualifying effort:
This is the first 1-2-3-4 qualifying sweep in JGR’s history.
This is the second Toyota top-five sweep in qualifying (Indianapolis 2025)
This is the third straight Las Vegas race where Toyota has swept at least the top-three in qualifying.
This is Denny Hamlin’s second straight fall Las Vegas pole, and fifth pole this season.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Denny, was there anything out there on the track that surprised me after getting the car out there doing practice?
“Not really. The track was hot, and as we thought. Qualifying had quite a bit more lifting to it than what we had in the previous races. So I was a little more nervous going into this qualifying session, because I knew my job as a driver was going to be more crucial, because when this track is cool, and you can run wide open, then it’s more about executing your upper shifts and things like that, and then hitting the lines. Well, here (turns) 3 and 4 the cars were absolutely handful, which we saw, a few washed up the racetrack, and the team nailed the balance right where they needed to, and we executed as good as I could on the racetrack.”
Could you talk about the importance of this starting position?
“Yeah, it is important, and the races that we’ve really succeeded well here, we’ve started up front, and, so yeah, I mean, today was executed by the team perfectly, how we approached the week, and the adjustments we made to the car for temperature seemed to be really good changes, and I couldn’t ask for today to go a whole lot better than it did.”
How do you think your balance will be for tomorrow’s race?
“Yeah, I mean, the good news is – today wasn’t much different, and it won’t be much different from what we have tomorrow. I think that it was a good practice session with all the cars out there and you had an hour and change, it seems like. So, I think that what you had today is what you’re going to have tomorrow. It just didn’t seem like there’ll be a whole lot of difference. I like my car today, and hopefully, I’ll like it tomorrow, but obviously, the track position certainly matters, and we got to keep it.”
Do you feel like this is a race weekend where Toyotas have control?
“I don’t know about in control. I understand that I’m not blind. I can see the results of qualifying. I think that that was a good preparation by, it seemed like the Toyotas preparing for what racetrack we were going to have today. Today was really a balance type of your speed came with balance, and it seemed like we all, guessed pretty well on balance this week. So, once it gets in the race, you just never know. I mean, there was some Toyotas that were good, some that were not good in practice today. I don’t know that necessarily means that they’re all going to run one through six or whatever. That’s why they play the game for sure.”
Who else stood out from practice?
“All the normal, normal characters. I mean, nobody new that I could pay attention to, but I didn’t get to analyze anybody but kind of some Toyotas, so that was all I really looked at.”
How much of advantage is it to start on the pole here?
“It certainly is. I think we’ll be in traffic a little more at this racetrack than historically, we’re in traffic more here than Kansas. I talked about this earlier, this track is pretty narrow. The groove in (turns) one and two, is, like, two and a half cars wide. So there’s not a whole lot of escaping, the dirty air that does come from the lead car. So I just hope we’re the ones putting off that wake, but you just never know this sport is week by week, and we’re all guilty of overreacting on Mondays about what we just saw over the weekend, but, you know, the 5 (Kyle Larson) car could easily just drive right up through there and pass us and win the race again. You never know, or we could do the same thing he did last week.
We just don’t know. If we all knew, then you guys should, there’s a place with big buildings. You go place your bets and go make a lot of money.”
With 14 Chase cars up front, does that mean the racing will be tamer or does that make it crazier?
“Yeah, it seems like it’s getting like this week after week, and I’ve been part of many different playoffs and championships where – Chase guys usually make their way to the front, but, like, it seems like they’re really dominating those top 14, 16 spots week in, week out. Pretty consistently. I don’t know what everyone’s mentality is going to be. I mean, if you’re someone 140 back, you probably have a different mentality than someone that’s leading by 26. So I think everyone is a little bit different, but certainly, we’re going to find out together.”
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