Information By: TOYOTA RACING – WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media on Saturday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
What did you think when you saw your hauler, and do you have any concern?
“I mean it is tough out there. Sponsorship is hard to come by, and certainly, while it is such an important time in our sport to recognize that sponsorship dollars are not flowing like they used to for sure. Everyone has had to adjust quite a bit, and there are certain aspects that JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) has to price into their pricing as well that is probably tough. I don’t know. It is part of it. Certainly, having one sponsor for 20 years, made things pretty easy and now it is all catching up. Is it concerning from my end? Maybe a little bit, but it is probably more concerning from JGR’s standpoint.”
Where would you like to see the Clash go in the future?
“I’m personally in the boat that I liked it at Daytona. It was just a really good warm up for the 500. I thought it provided tons of storylines for the 500, but it is a little bit different now-a-days. The racing on superspeedways is different. You used to, back then, if you saw someone that was really dominate in the Clash, it was like they have a great handling car – they are going to be tough to beat – doesn’t matter where they start. Now that it is such a track position race, I don’t know that you will get the direct correlation, but it could certainly bring back some hype to the 500. I’m probably in that boat or really anywhere that helps grow and get some excitement going for the season. I don’t really have a bucket list place where I would want to put it.”
What would your thoughts be on going internationally?
“Internationally – maybe just from the standpoint that there is probably more time to prepare for the race teams. It’s not in the middle of the season, and then you have the gap after that for Super Bowl for you to get back and get reset and go for the 500. Perhaps.”
What is your perspective on where NASCAR is at as a sport?
“I think it is a really crucial year all around. There is a lot of big decisions that definitely need to get made. It is a crucial year with the new TV partners – getting our fans to transition over there to the streaming platforms – that is going to be big. I think it is just a huge year. You are going to have to find a way to get everyone to transition and kind of rally around the new type of media partners that we have and hopefully rely on them to hopefully grow the sport as well. I think that it is just a crucial year – all around.”
Do you have an opinion on the new provisional rule?
“I don’t know. I just think – it reeks of desperation. I don’t know how else to say it. I don’t know how nice you can really say it. It just feels like you are really trying to get any kind of headline you can to be relevant and I don’t love it.”
Well, it exists now?
“I know – to me it is a short-term gain, long-term loss. I just think that you are premier stock car series in the US. The premier racing sport in the US; be the big boys and force people to come in here and get their credentials and do it the natural way. I don’t think it is going to be a big factor anywhere other than Daytona, but just simply put, saying that someone has a name that interests you and that they are going to have an automatic bid in the highest form of motorsports in the US – I don’t love it.”
Are there any drivers you would like to see come try?
“No. Not really.”
Has this event moved away from the racing mattering most?
“I always think that the racing itself is an important factor. While the race is going on, there is either going to be a social media buzz around – either positive around the racing or not, so I still think that is an important thing, but you have a great point. It is something else, as far as the spectacle itself, it is an exhibition type race – so I think it is just a primer to let everyone know that we are racing again, truthfully. I think LA had its own place. I thought it was really well done. Here – it looks like they did a really good job with it. I think each place has its certain relevance, and I think that this place has its relevance as well with its history. It just seems like moving it around and changing things is what is stirring the interest, not necessarily what is happening on track, which is what you are saying.”
How significant would it be for you to get your fourth Daytona 500 win?
“It would be big all around. There are lots of really good stuff that comes with it, with the bonus points and what not. There are only a select group that are really, really elite that have won those. I wish that I had a bigger role in it now than what I used to have in our results and finishes, but truthfully, in the Next Gen, I have just struggled to find the checkered flag at some point of the day. I don’t know. It would mean a lot to me personally and certainly put ourselves in a historic group there. It will be a tough task for sure.”
Is the Next Gen radically different on superspeedways than previous generations of cars?
“Mainly from the drag perspective. I learned so much from Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. and Tony Stewart, some of the bests when I was coming into the sport – Jeff Gordon – on how they created runs and then they would pull out of line and keep that run going and you just would see theme bouncing off these cars and you really saw it at the end of the 2016 Daytona 500 where we came from fourth or fifth to win it. I was just constantly using cars around me to keep this massive run going, and now – you have to stay in line. You are just really hoping your line goes forward. You are almost in a traffic jam, and you are hoping that your lane is the one that there is less congestion. It is just a different beast now. We have seen underdog type winners in it the last few years, and a lot of it is just where you are at, can you cycle good on pit road, can you save enough fuel during the green to make your cycle shorter? We still have an important role, but our role is now more off the track than it is on the racing surface.”
Has Toyota adding three additional cars at Daytona going to help with strategy?
“Yeah, it should. It certainly should. We worked really well together at Talladega until we ended up crashing each other, and then from that moment on, it was can we really all get on the same page, but certainly, the power of numbers allows us to at least create our own strategy. We were always at the mercy of the other manufacturers and trying to figure out – whether it was Ford or Chevy – that was going to pit when we wanted them to pit and we had to react to that, where I think we probably have enough numbers now that we can actually just create our own strategy, so that will certainly be beneficial, but when it comes down to the end of the race, it is a matter of who is left. I used to love being super selfish in those types of races, because I would just use anyone – I didn’t care if they were a teammate or not – to try to get a win, but so much with the manufacturer alliances now, it is really, really difficult to break through that.”
Are you clear on what is allowed or not allowed with manufacturer alliances at superspeedway?
“I think so. I think speedways would be status quo. I don’t think that I saw anything in the rules that would make me think that things would change from a manufacturer’s standpoint there. They have their own meetings, and they say don’t push this group – push our group instead, and you are not going to stop those words from being spoken, but that is just not something that you are going to be able to put back in the box now. That is just kind of what we’ve got.”