The perception is that Denny Hamlin the team owner is at conflict with Denny Hamlin the race car driver right now amidst an antitrust lawsuit from 23XI Racing, alongside Front Row Motorsports, against NASCAR.
The driver is trying to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship for Joe Gibbs Racing while the owner is suing the sanctioning body.
It’s an interesting dynamic.
“I think it’s pretty simple,” said Hamlin during media availabilities on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. “Just need to prepare the best you can and do the best you can on Sunday. 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 percent in it and focused.”
Hamlin says this isn’t a distraction and that the things people might view as a distraction are things he needs to do to not get burned out focusing entirely on driving race cars. And while much has been made of his not winning a championship, Hamlin also 54 points paying NASCAR Cup Series wins.
“I don’t want to be consumed with this 24 hours a day, like the driving aspect,” Hamlin said. “I would get burnt out if I raced as much as Kyle Larson or Kyle Busch. That’s just not my style of coming out here and competing.
“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-foot on hole 18 to win the match. Like, I live for those moments.”
But Hamlin also says his approach also maximizes his potential on any given weekend. He also points out that it’s not like Hamlin is the only one working on his legal case.
“We have a team that handles this now and they’re now speaking upon it and acting upon it,” Hamlin said. “Really, the work’s been done on my standpoint, you just let them do their work and things will work themselves out.”
Hamlin said the vibes have been positive in the shop.
“Michael Jordan sent me an awesome clip from ‘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 — teams, drivers, fans, everyone.
“I feel like, certainly on our end, that’s actually been good for me. 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 and everything I have to do there since it’s out, done and now there’s other people out to speak on it, from the legality standpoint.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.