NASCAR CUP SERIES: CRACKER BARREL 400

June 1, 2025

Denny Hamlin

Pit Lane Interview

Q. You didn't have any fresh air in your helmet, didn't have any water in the car. How difficult physically behind the wheel was that?

DENNY HAMLIN: It was hot. I don't run a cool shirt or anything like that, so that's three elements that the other drivers had that I didn't have. So yeah, I got hot.

Carson Hocevar, the helmet visor up there, to try to get a little air in. But just couldn't run with the 12 there in the super long run. After 40 laps I could maintain with him, but after that he just pulled away and would stretch it on us.

Our best strategy at that point was to go long, and you either catch a caution or another caution comes. We all were going to stay out so the lap times don't fall off, and then we got fresher tires. We got jumped by the 77 and then the track just went through a really weird phase there the last 30 laps where everyone had to pin to the bottom. I think there was not enough cars running in the middle, and it threw dust up in that middle and top lane so it was not an option. It was like ice up there. That definitely hurt the passing.

Q. Points tonight looked like you had the car to beat in this race, and you just mentioned the changes in the track. Did that go away from you guys on the 11?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I thought that the second-to-last run when me and the 12 pulled away, I thought that long run there, I went loose. I went loose the run before that, but I just lost too much grip late, and we tried to make it better that last run. Made it slightly better, but just wasn't enough.