One thing about Denny Hamlin is that he is going to talk his shit.
Upon winning his first race of the season on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Hamlin rolled out a flag that read ’11 Against the World’ and that message has been brought to you by the same guy that rode with ‘I Just Beat Your Favorite Driver’ for a year or so too.
Why is this the new slogan?
“Why not,” Hamlin shot back. “That’s just me. I mean, go shoot hoops with me, play pickle ball with me, play golf with me. If I can’t shit talk, it takes away my super power. I’m not nearly as good. My friends, it drives them absolutely crazy. To me, that part of it, it fuels me and it just makes me feel good. That’s it.”
It’s certainly on brand but it’s also bodacious from a now 44-year-old still seeking his first championship and unarguably on the backside of his career. This was his 55th win at the highest level, matching Rusty Wallace for 11th on the all-time wins list and doing it at the same track where he claimed his last Cup Series win too.
“How old was he,” Hamlin wanted to know.
47
“That’s a long way away,” Hamlin retorted, a reference to his runway to still pick up wins and maybe get that championship too.
And make no mistake, even reaching his mid-40s, Hamlin expects to win. While he cherishes these wins more than those in his 30s just from an awareness standpoint, this isn’t a Hamlin that thinks this could be the last one.
“I mean, I probably am the king of irrational confidence,” Hamlin said. “I mean, generally speaking, I know that when I got the car to do it, I can be the best, so…”
One thing about Hamlin is that he is going to talk his shit.
“I haven’t felt like I’ve held back the car at any point,” Hamlin said. “Certainly I’m not immune to understanding that Father Time is undefeated but everything that I need to be good to be a race car driver is still really sharp. I feel like it hasn’t happened yet. It will, but not yet.”
So yes, right now, Hamlin is going to wave his flag and talk his shit and while conducting this interview, was excited to celebrate it with his ride or die supporters. There were a handful waiting in the infield and even more waiting outside of the Turn 4 crossover gate.
“It feels good to know that there’s probably like 50 fans that are out there waiting for me to get done with this that are going to stick this out,” Hamlin said. “Maybe those were the only 50 in the stands that are rooting for me today.
“I do it because of them. I do it because it fuels me from the inside. I love when someone says I can’t do it, going out there and doing it.”
Different kind of win
Despite his ‘irrational confidence kingdom,’ there were reasons to think last summer could have been it for Hamlin.
Dismissing his age, Joe Gibbs Racing appeared to take away one of Hamlin’s more tangible superpowers in crew chief Chris Gabehart, promoting him to competition director for the entire organization, a move on paper intended to strengthen all four of their Toyotas.
But Hamlin made no secret of how much he was personally disappointed because he felt like he and Gabehart had a special thing over the past six years and 22 victories.
However, the compromise is that Hamlin would retain the entire team that Gabehart built but move veteran crew chief Chris Gayle over from working with Ty Gibbs to provide as much continuity as possible and it has seemingly worked out.
And while confident in his ability, Gayle said he was aware of the pressure that moving into his new role represented.
“I’m the only one that’s changed,” Gayle said. “They’ve won races previous to me. If anybody is going to have pressure on them, it was me.
“I think anytime you have change, there’s that concern. They haven’t shown it to me, the team hasn’t. I’m sure in the back of their minds, human nature is, ‘Are we going to win as much as we did before?’ ‘We’re doing some changes here.’ ‘How is this all going to work?’
Through the first two months of the season, Hamlin hasn’t skipped a competitive beat, they’ve won a race and this looks like it shouldn’t be their last together.
With that in mind, it was a special win for Gabehart too, in that it is his fourth as competition director but the first time he saw the No. 11 team he built win without him.
“Those were my guys, man,” Gabehart said. “I am, over time, trying to figure out how to help put a fingerprint on the other three teams and on the organization as a whole — that’s why I was put in this role. But I spent six years embedded in that No. 11, building the culture of that No. 11.
“So many of those team members are family to me. I’ve asked them to sacrifice so much for so many years, so absolutely, this one feels a lot different. The Martinsville clock that eluded the No. 11 for so many years is finally back with Denny and the No. 11 team, and yeah this is a big one for me. I’m proud of all of them, but this one is a big one for me personally.”
And Gabehart called his shot too.
For years, Gabehart says he would tell Hamlin when he felt convicted they were going to win together. Gabehart said his gut has a higher batting average that Hamlin will admit. His gut told him that the No. 11 team was going to win this weekend and he told everyone at the company that too.
“When I watched practice in Turn 1 and 2, I know the look the 11 needs and the things they work on the last time we were there, and they had it,” Gabehart said. “In our meeting afterward, I could kind of tell it was there.
“So this morning, I leaned into the window and told Denny, ‘you know that feeling and I got it today, it’s you,’ and I told all of them that,” Gabehart said. “He said your batting average is 10 percent and I told him that was bullcrap and I hugged him in Victory Lane and he admitted my batting average was better than that.”
Gabehart said he just knew.
“He gave me the old rah-rah, I feel good about it today speech,” Hamlin recalled. “I saw Jared there video taping him. I said, ‘He’s a liar because we never win now when he has those feelings,’ but we did today.”
Penske woes
Josh Berry nearly won the first stage, through a little bit of luck and strategy, but then lost it by the same means.
He stayed out from just outside of the top-10 as the leaders all came down pit road for varying tire strategies. However, nine laps from the stage break, Chris Buescher spun after clearing himself on Carson Hocevar.
Berry had to pit because his tires wouldn’t hold up after field bunched back up. On pit exit, Berry suffered a collision with Bubba Wallace. Worse yet, his car lost power and needed a battery change in his Wood Brothers No. 21. They lost a lap and their race was never the same.
Interestingly enough, Austin Cindric in the Team Penske No. 21 also had power issues and needed a battery change.
Wood Brothers crew chief, and Penske engineer, Miles Stanley said it was an alternator failure on the Berry car.
“We weren’t charging the battery and just had to manage the voltage the whole race, all our switches, electrical loads and draws,” Stanley said. “We just had to make it last as long as we could.”
Was this similar to the Cindric issue?
“Pretty similar issue,” he said.
Stanley also said their issue was not related to the contact on pit road with Wallace. Berry finished 33rd and Cindric, 38th.
Meanwhile, Joey Logano finally secured his first top-10 of the season but it was not a satisfying result with a car that had race winning speed. The three-time and defending champion had a run-in a late restart with Ross Chastain, which predated then being spun by Chase Briscoe, who caught a curb and drifted into him.
It seems like it’s been a typical 2025,” said Logano. “A pretty solid car and then something happens … We went for that stage win early in the race in Stage 1. I think that was the right call. We got ourselves back in the ballpark there and the long haul was pretty good. It was just kind of like a pick them off one at a time kind of thing and then Ross just sticking it in a tight spot. He did it to me on the restart before.
“I can’t even blame Briscoe for shipping him. I think he got himself in a bind trying to ship him. [Chastain] just races like a jackass every week and I keep paying the price. I’m sick of paying the price.”
Set the standard
The Cup Series race ended with a pair of long green flag runs, a stark contrast from what happened the day before in the Xfinity Series, when the division set a track record number of cautions defined by a Sammy Smith retaliatory divebomb on Taylor Gray that cost them both the win.
Sunday had some messy moments in the middle, and there were several bump-and-runs, spins and hard-nosed short track moments, but restarts were procedural and clean.
“Tells me Cup guys know how to race,” said Bubba Wallace after his third place finish.
Christopher Bell didn’t mince words after the race either.
“That’s because the Cup drivers respect each other more,” Bell said. “Yesterday was absolutely infuriating. My blood was absolutely boiling inside the motor home watching it. That was a disgrace for our sport.
“That should not be tolerated, not just the last lap, but the whole thing. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
Hamlin says he will have more to say on Monday during his podcast but says NASCAR needs to step in.
“Yeah, certainly I think the sanctioning body needs to get involved a little bit and step in on egregious things,” Hamlin said. “I think it’s continued to ramp up, right? We’ve seen this stuff.
“It used to only happen on green-white-checkereds. Then this place, it seemed like inside 20 to go people would lose their minds. Those guys yesterday did it with 50 to go, absolutely just creaming each other. It was just horrible driving by most of the people out there. It’s just not a good look.
“Certainly you shouldn’t be able to just wipe someone out egregiously like what happened at the end of the race yesterday. Certainly we have a black flag for a reason. I think we should start using it.”
Their direct supervisor, Gabehart, had equally stern words for the field.
“I sure hope the sport’s top level always races the way they did today and not the way they did yesterday,” Gabehart said. “Yesterday was a joke and all those drivers should be ashamed of themselves. They clearly don’t have the understanding of what it takes to stand in Victory Lane on Sundays, clearly. They don’t have a clue.
“But if you want to stand in Victory Lane today, you can’t act like you did yesterday.”
Bell says something has to be done.
“I said on the podium after Circuit of the Americas that hopefully that race was a step in the right direction and Cup races have been professional and clean,” Bell said. “But yesterday was absolutely embarrassing and something needs to be done. It has to start with NASCAR. That was bad.”
Odds and ends
Wallace got a second consecutive top three to maintain a really good start to his season. He’s now eighth in the standings and 58 points above the provisional playoff cutoff line.
“Another third place is a big picture moment for us, so congrats to Denny and those guys, but this was just a grand it out performance for us,” Wallace said.
Hamlin is really proud of what he sees from his driver and new crew chief Charles Denike.
“Yeah, it’s great to see especially that team and Bubba,” Hamlin said. “Like, they’re really good right now. I mean, really, really good. On the edge of winning races. It’s great to see.
“My perfect scenario is me winning and my team cars to finish second, third, fourth. That would be the perfect scenario. It would be nearly impossible to have. When you’re able to execute a day where we can win and they can be in the top five and contending for a win, that’s just like I scripted it up.”
Ryan Preece got another top-10 and is starting to stagger positive results after a slow start with the superspeedways and a road course. Preece is up to 14th in the standings and 15 above the cutoff line.
“I didn’t expect that one,” Preece said. “Honestly, it all started with me messing up in qualifying and putting us back there. Ultimately, we got some great stage points and some great calls and great adjustments on the box and we got this Fastenal Ford Mustang where it needed to be.
“We’ve got some work to do to be able to drive through like some other cars do, but I think we’ve got some good ideas and obviously a little luck went our way today. I’m proud of everybody on this Fastenal Ford Mustang and everybody at RFK. We’ve just got to keep working and keep grinding.”
Todd Gilliland got a much needed top-10 and Michael McDowell remains a playoff threat with a 12th place result.
Provisional playoff grid
Christopher Bell WWW
William Byron W
Kyle Larson W
Denny Hamlin W
Josh Berry W
Chase Elliott +77
Alex Bowman +74
Tyler Reddick +63
Bubba Wallace +58
Joey Logano +49
Ryan Blaney +43
Chris Buescher +27
Chase Briscoe +19
Ross Chastain +19
Ryan Preece +15
Michael McDowell +9
===
Kyle Busch -9
John Hunter Nemechek -11
AJ Allmendinger -11
Ricky Stenhouse Jr -13
Daniel Suarez -34
Todd Gilliland -34
Zane Smith -35
Austin Cindric -37
Ty Dillon -42
Justin Haley -45
Austin Dillon -45
Carson Hocevar -46
Erik Jones -51
Brad Keselowski -58
Ty Gibbs -61
Noah Gragson -70
Riley Herbst -71
Shane Van Gisbergen -80
Cole Custer -97
