Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
DAYTONA BEACH (February 18, 2022) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to media prior to the Daytona 500 this Friday:
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing
What do you have to do on Sunday to win your fourth Daytona 500?
“I think it’s just execution and just being strategic with your moves and how you manage the race. Really, a lot of it is going to boil down to is just not making mistakes and if you do make mistakes make sure they’re early where you can recover because I think it will be a little bit difficult to recover if it happens late.”
How selfish does a driver have to be on the last lap of the Daytona 500?
“I don’t know if they’re too nice, but you have to be selfish obviously. You can’t win if you’re content on just helping someone else. If I help someone else there are selfish reasons behind it. It might look like I’m trying to help someone – I’m trying to help myself. It’s just kind of the way it is. In this world of manufacturer alliances and all that stuff that has really been a prominent part of our racing, the bottom line is I’ve made a career at superspeedways the last 10 years just counting on other people being selfish. Then, when the rubber hits the road at the end of the race, the guy in eighth place pushing seven of the same manufacturers in front of him eventually is going to get tired of waiting and know that his time has run out and he has to make a move and that’s typically when I capitalize. That’s typically how it’s worked in the past and drivers will always be selfish, especially at the end of the 500.”
What were your impressions of the draft with the new car and was it easier to get dropped from the draft?
“It is and there’s a lot of factors that goes into cars losing the draft. I tried my best. I lined up and did everything I was supposed to do. I was at the tail end – this is once I got lapped by the Toyotas because I was trying to push them forward and I couldn’t hang on. There’s nothing I could’ve done short of telling the person in front of me where to run on the race track to allow me to stay in there, but you can’t do it. These cars lose so much engine power behind others. It’s tough. It looks like four is the number. You can stay in the tail end of the four-car (draft), but once it gets to five the speeds kick up where that last car is really in trouble. I think that while we can say that the race can look like this or that or there’s only half the field. I do think a lot of the elements that you saw last night will happen on the Sunday where the field gets strung out pretty wide.”
When do you think the inventory issues will be sorted out for the new car?
“Everything we do now affects five races down the road and certainly we don’t have cars enough to race three right now. A lot of these cars right now for a while are just going to be parts cars. I was looking at the protocols that we had last night – okay, if one JGR car wrecks here is the protocol. If there’s one JGR and one 23XI here’s the protocol here. There’s two and one, here’s the protocol. We had it all mapped out of what we’re going to do if we crash because it’s a major issue. I think the hopes that you had heard from NASCAR that we were all going to have five cars to start the year, was unfortunately not met. We have what we have. We have two and a half right now at a stretch. And you think you need one car per week to race, well that’s fantastic. Unfortunately, these shop guys that are working are working ridiculous hours right now. The smaller amount of cars that you have, the more hours they have to work because we’re preparing weeks in advance. We can’t just leave Daytona and then Monday think about, ‘We’re going to go and race California so let’s go get those cars put together, setup and go.’ We create the timeline, and we have the need for cars because you can’t have shop guys or girls working 24 hours a day. We won’t keep any of our employees that way.”
How different is the side draft and with the softer bumpers how much does it affect the ability to bump draft?
“Every manufacturer is different. A lot of it is shapes of cars. As you know the sides of these cars, the bumpers of these cars look a lot different for each manufacturer. So, all of them will be able to bump draft or push draft or whatever differently. I don’t know that you could really throw a blanket statement over all of the cars because they are so different, but certainly some bodies lend themselves better to this type of racing than others. Side drafting is still part of our racing. It always has been since Dale Earnhardt kind of showed us that. It’s still a big part of what we do today.”
Is it more effective on the inside lane than on the high lane?
“Sure. Every car is different. I know what it is on my car, but I’m not going to spill it through this microphone.”
Did it surprise you that NASCAR confiscated wheels from two teams?
“I have not heard, but uh oh!”
How do you know when it’s time to go at the end of the Daytona 500 and not go too soon or too late?
“A lot of it is situational and the people that are up front and how many laps are to go. Gosh, there’s just a lot of different things. I do think things happen a little bit slower in this car. I know that’s hard to believe after last night with the late block. The runs are produced a little bit slower. You have to be methodical with how you produce that run and when you pull out you’ve got to figure out how am I going to clear because there’s just not as much momentum and energy built up as what we had. I can’t say that I have the answer to it because I don’t. I haven’t been in a situation where it’s been okay, I’ve been 10th place and I was still able to win inside five laps to go. Talladega last year – or a few years ago – we were 29th on the first green-white checkered and we won. Who knows? There’s so much energy in the pack. Now this, I think this will be a little bit different. Just to caution everyone, the racing could look a little different from what we’ve had in the past. It doesn’t mean it that it won’t be a great race. I think we’ve seen last lap or second to last lap pass for both Duels so you can build some energy and get some exciting finishes. It just might look differently to get to that point.”
What were you seeing during the Duel last night that made you get nervous about being in the pack last night?
“Just from my perspective there were a couple people that have historically crashed making aggressive moves and we don’t know enough about how to maneuver our cars right now and I didn’t feel comfortable being in the middle of it. I was with all of my Toyota teammates, and I was worried about if there was a crash if it was going to wipe all of our cars out, which trust me the protocol for five cars being wiped out for Toyota was going to be a really, really bad scenario. So, I was looking to get out to at least try to preserve mine if there was a crash.”
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