TALLADEGA, Ala.: Denny Hamlin has always insisted he thrives in chaos.
If so, Hamlin’s performance should be absolutely off the chart in the coming weeks, after 23XI Racing—the Cup team he co-owns with Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk—and Front Row Motorsports filed suit against NASCAR on Wednesday for “anti-competitive and monopolistic control of the sport.”
Hamlin is convinced the litigation could be just the catalyst he needs.
“Make no mistake, the competitor in me, you don’t think I don’t want to come out here and win this weekend more than any? That’s what I fuel myself on, making the 18-footer on hole 18 to win the match,” Hamlin said. “I live for those moments. So, certainly, anyone that knows me personally will tell you that these moments, you’ll typically get more out of Denny, because I hate to lose and certainly will not justify any excuses to losing.
“And so, I’m going to give it all I can…But this isn’t a responsibility I’m taking all myself, right? We have a team that handles this now, and they’re now speaking on it and acting upon it. Really, the work’s been done on my standpoint, you just let them do their work and things will work themselves out.”
Now that the suit has been filed in Charlotte, Hamlin can focus on the task at hand—winning the 2024 NASCAR Cup championship. The 19-year veteran has been denied the title despite having the talent and cars capable of contending.
Since NASCAR introduced its Playoff system in 2014, the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing car has advanced to the Championship 4 four times—only to fall short. With two races remaining in the Round of 12, Hamlin is currently fifth in the standings—the same position he has occupied in the final standings the last two seasons. His strategy is “pretty simple.”
“Just need to prepare the best you can and do the best you can on Sunday,” Hamlin said. “I think, you know, it’s more of a question for my team, and I would ask them, ‘Has your driver never not been prepared? Has he never given 100 percent?’ Never. I’ve certainly talked about it, probably a year or so ago when it came down to this, and I became more comfortable with what the result was.
“No matter what, whether I win a championship or not, I’m going to make sure I can sleep at night knowing that I gave it my all for my team. Certainly, there’s been some circumstances over time that I haven’t been able to control, but to not let those situations affect me. Certainly, this is a situation I can control, and I give the team the proper preparation and make sure that when I get in the race car on Sunday, they know through my actions on the track that I’m 100% in it and focused.”
Hamlin was the only Toyota driver to qualify in the top 10 for the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday. Before NASCAR introduced the NextGen car in 2022, he won three consecutive poles between the fall race in 2020 and 2021. With flawless execution, Hamlin won his fourth pole on the 2.66-mile track in the spring of 2023 but the two-time Talladega winner hasn’t found his comfort zone behind the wheel of the seventh-generation Cup car.
“Not even close,” Hamlin said. “I wish that I felt like I had a bigger role in what our result would be this weekend. Obviously, all the things I’ve learned from Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Tony Stewart, some of the greats I’ve watched make moves and make runs. It’s just a different world today and more about where the spotter tells you to go, as they can see the bigger picture and make sure you’re staying in the right line.
“At that point, yeah, it does come down to some good techniques if you’re in those first three or four cars, but the days driving from the back to the front are over. You just have to do the best you can to execute and it’s just the biggest name of the game on this track now.”
Before the spring race, Hamlin fared well in the art of survival at Talladega. He experienced his just his fourth race-ending crash in 37 starts at the behemoth of superspeedways during April’s Geico 500.
While Hamlin has never shied away from a challenge—on or off the track—there is no precedent for how his latest row with NASCAR will unfold.
“I feel like the reaction has been positive on our end,” Hamlin said. “My Jordan (fiancee Jordan Fish) sent me an awesome clip from ‘The Moneyball,’ where John Henry was saying ‘the first one through the wall always gets bloodied.’ But, in the end, it’s because you’re threatening the status quo and threatening people’s jobs and things like that.
“I hope it’s not seen that way, just seeing that this is certainly an opportunity for us to try to promote change in the sport that’s positive for everyone. And that’s teams, drivers, fans, everyone.”
If Hamlin can continue to compartmentalize between “Denny the driver” and “Denny the owner who’s suing NASCAR,” perhaps transferring to the final round of the postseason at Phoenix isn’t out of the question.
“I feel like, certainly on our end, that’s actually been good for me,’ Hamlin said. “This is not like just one day, we woke up and said, ‘This is going to happen.’ This has been on the plate for a while. And certainly, from my standpoint, it’s provided more relief for me to put more focus on the No. 11 car.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
