TOYOTA RACING – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
LONG POND, Penn. (June 13, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Pocono Raceway.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 King’s Hawaiian Shake ‘Em Bites Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
What are the challenges of racing at Pocono?
“It’s typically strategy. That’s one of the biggest factors of kind of where you’re going to end up finishing. Of course, you got to be fast. You have to qualify really well, but then it comes down to strategy, so many races have been won by, teams that you get that caution or you pit right before the caution, you can flip the field, and then once you get the clean air here, you can really kind of take off. It just seems like strategies, the only thing that as a driver, you just can’t really control that you hope goes your way.”
How much have you looked into like Christopher Bell’s car, how it worked, and do you have any concerns as far as the safety of the car going forward?
“I mean, truthfully, I haven’t looked at it at all. I haven’t dived into it at all. Obviously, that was a super massive hit and a very awkward kind of position where he doesn’t probably have very much time to change his posture or prepare for it either because it happened so quick. He got out of the car, other than his wrist, he felt okay. I feel like we’ve made some good, good strides in the safety department, because certainly before they started cutting on the chassis and starting to make it weaker like we wanted in the beginning that would have been a very, very tough impact to the body itself.”
Do you think that relaxed driving style is kind of what has helped you succeed at the triangle?
“I mean, sort of. I think just generally at this racetrack when I came here for the first time, it suited my driving style. I always raced low horsepower, late models that you had to keep momentum up, and this is just a really a momentum-based racetrack that you got to keep minimum speeds up. It’s about having really fast drive on the exit of the corner and this track rewards that type of style. So, I think that that really has been, you know, the key to the success here. Then, being with Joe Gibbs Racing. When I came here back in ‘06, they had some really good stuff going on with their cars, some development that Tony Stewart found in 2005 that I was able to latch onto. So, it really was just good timing on my part in a track that really suits my style.”
What would that mean to you to accomplish that this week and do it at a place like this?
“Yeah, it would be one of our best shots. There’s been other times where we’ve won two, and then the third racetrack is when we don’t feel quite as confident but certainly here, we think we have a great opportunity. It certainly would be something special to me, that something that we haven’t accomplished in my career, that I didn’t know that all the other top 10 guys had. So, it’s certainly something that has been very tough to achieve.”
Have you ever felt as confident coming to the racetrack on a weekly basis as you do right now?
“Not really. This is certainly the peak of that. There’s been other times where we’ve had a lot of success over a stretch like you’re talking about, but not as dominating, even though, I don’t know that we’ve really dominated the last few weeks. When we’ve needed to, we could, and that was that’s been the difference this time around versus previous. So, no, not really. I feel very confident in the way that I’m approaching each racetrack, the way that I need to get speed out of the cars, what I need out of them in traffic, all those things. I feel pretty dialed in with that right now.”
How do you prepare each week with the track changes?
“The process is truthfully the same. It really doesn’t change track to track. It does change for San Diego, since I haven’t been there before. Obviously, the process starts a little bit sooner. You need more laps, more reps at a track like San Diego versus somewhere like here at Pocono. So, I don’t really treat it any differently. My advantage right now just simply is that the laps that I’ve got at all these tracks, and any of these tracks that I’ve been successful at or had wins or run really strong, I know I know what that feel is. So, I just go in there and I try to replicate that feel over and over and over. So, it’s just, it’s truthfully been easy when we’re coming to these racetracks where I’ve had success or had wins. It’s tracks like San Diego where I don’t know what the right feel is. I don’t know where I’m at on the racetrack. That’s where the challenge really comes in, but all the other tracks, it’s pretty easy at this point, knowing what I need out of the car. Not easy to get the result. The process is not easy, but it’s certainly easy to know what I need.”
How much are you thinking about points and trying to close that gap since we have two road courses coming up after this?
“I mean, yes and no. I don’t know that we found ourselves really racing with him at any point of this season, like looking at points or anything like that. Yeah, we’re within shouting distance now, but I still don’t think we’re going to change our approach. I would imagine, when it comes to strategy, things like that, just do whatever it takes to win the race, and so that that will close the gap, surely. So, I think we can keep doing that and then play a little damage control when we go to the next couple tracks, then we put ourselves in a position to make maybe make a run at it later.”
.
Since the wave of the checkers at Phoenix last year, the off-season that you had personally to deal with, how much have you been able to compartmentalize that into this year’s campaign and is it fueling what you’re able to produce out there now?
“Yeah, I mean, I think there’s a couple motivating factors. Certainly, right now, some of it is knowing that I’ve only got a couple more shots at this racetrack to win here, and we are there typically my best opportunities to win. You only got two more shots, or one more shot at that. So that is the super high motivating factor. Another one is the fast cars that I’m driving right now. Knowing that this is a window of opportunity to get the wins that I hope to accomplish in my career. That is a factor. Outside the racetrack, yeah, I mean, things are things are going good for once. Nothing’s crazy going on and mom has moved into her new house this week, so things are good there, and just there’s a lot of positive juju going on. So, it’s all just compounding and it’s just raising my confidence each time I go to the racetrack.”
Do you have excitement for the In-Season Tournament?
“Yeah, and I think they’re going by points this year, right? Yeah, so I like that a lot better, obviously, for simplicity reasons. I don’t know kind of who’s in that group, but really it was the racetracks last year. It was just so tough. Atlanta kind of wiped out really all the favorites right there in the first week, which you would expect out with a road course or a superspeedway, and we still got still got that in there, but it’s not the first race. So, it’s something that I would like to go further than the first round this year. Ty Dillon took it to me the first week last time (laughter).”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.
