NASCAR CUP SERIES: ALL-STAR RACE

May 17, 2026

Denny Hamlin

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our All-Star Race race winner, Denny Hamlin.

We'll open it up to questions.

Q. How did you think the aero package did today?

DENNY HAMLIN: I mean, I could pass, I can tell you that.

I thought it was good. I mean, it's still Dover. It still forces you to kind of have to drive it a certain way. I mean, good cars were up front. Practice and all that shit, just doesn't matter. It's the best cars and whatnot worked their way to the front. I thought that it was good.

If anything, it's a little different because it's not just a package change. We did have practice, so that tightens the field up anyway.

From what I could see, I thought track position was for the as important as it was in years past.

Q. It seemed like the cars were harder to control maybe.

DENNY HAMLIN: Yes.

Q. Is that accurate?

DENNY HAMLIN: Uh-huh, it was. And you had the extra horsepower to it. So you're going in the corner at a slower rate of speed, so the tires are the one that has to make up the difference for grip you have lost. Then you're applying more power. When you put the throttle down, it makes the car further out of control.

As you could see, we were running all over the racetrack. I thought NASCAR and the whole team did a great job preparing the track as good as they possibly could.

Yeah, it's as good as you'll get.

Q. The commonality for the drivers post-race that were in the top five, they said when they come here next time, they want to see the resin again. Are you on that same boat?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I'm good with it. Like I said, I thought it was prepared nicely. To me, personally. Again, it's different for everyone. If you talk to the 20th place guy, he would probably say it was horrible.

It didn't seem as aero sensitive, for whatever reason, whether it was resin or whatever. I think the resin equalized the lap time to the top from what the preferred line was on the bottom.

Just looking at lap times on my dash, it really didn't really matter what lane I was in. I could run the same time, which that's what makes the mile-and-a-half racing as good as it is on super wide tracks is we got a lane to go to. The way they prepared the track, it gave us that option.

Q. Any idea what you're going to do with the $1 million?

DENNY HAMLIN: Mom needs some furniture for her new house.

Q. You've made a point over the last handful of years that you're counting wins, and it's about the bigger picture.

DENNY HAMLIN: This one doesn't count. It's bullshit (laughter).

Q. Where are you at when you throw that into the blender?

DENNY HAMLIN: That's my career. All the wins that really matter don't count (smiling).

Q. It matters to the bank account or to the legacy.

DENNY HAMLIN: It's cool. It will go on your résumé when they're debating whether to put you in or not. Yeah, it doesn't go on the stat sheet.

Q. Heather was talking about your place in the company, what you continue to mean to the team, their partners. She alluded to at some point we ask him one more year, one more year. Are you sure you're dead set on next year being it, or can they get one more year out of you?

DENNY HAMLIN: I mean, I want to finish like this. I do. I do not want to go through the regression. My ego will not allow me to be mediocre. So, I mean, I'm going to have to leave some on the table at some point, right?

In order to know that you can win your last race, you're going to have to go into the next year saying, I'm not doing it, but I could have.

Q. At the start of your career this statistically was one of your worst tracks, if not the worst. Now three straight wins here. Do you feel like this is your best track now?

DENNY HAMLIN: Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex, I just spent an enormous amount of time studying those two guys. They taught me how to go around the racetrack just by leading by example.

Obviously I'm a student of it. When I went through the struggles here, Wally Brown, actually saw him in Victory Lane. He's like, Man, I remember 20 years ago, you come here, you're three laps down every time. What a change.

Just being able to adapt my style to someone else's style that performs well at this racetrack. So I think that's probably my strength is just not being stuck to one style. I can go to a racetrack. If it's got a different tire that wants something different, I'll drive it differently.

Back when I was studying them is just when you were starting to get more on-board videos and whatnot. We didn't have data or anything like that. I just watched lap after lap after lap and said, I'm going to copy that, right or wrong. It started working.

Q. Is this your best track?

DENNY HAMLIN: Is it my best? I mean, it's hard to argue gap to competition that it's not. I mean, Kansas is just one that is really, really strong for me. Yeah, it's in the top three.

Q. Coming up to the competition caution, the top five were grouped together. At the restart you were able to pull away. What adjustments did you make? Did anything in the track change?

DENNY HAMLIN: Are you talking about specifically stage three?

Q. Yes.

DENNY HAMLIN: I mean, it was one fricking restart where I started first and was able to stay first. That was the biggest difference. I just could not get through the first corner on the restarts.

If there's something that we got to work on, it's going to be that. The caution comes out, I just think there's no way we win. I don't care what tires or who stays, whatever. We were not good through the first couple corners.

I'll be honest, when we started that third stage, this car was very easy to drive. They nailed the adjustments. I mean, one thing I've noticed about this team over the last couple years with Chris Gayle leading it is that we can be leading and dominating, and he'll still go make adjustments. He does not just leave things as-is.

They constantly make it better, and they nailed it through in the third stage.

Q. I know you'll do a full breakdown on the podcast. The final segment started without two drivers who had previously locked in. So it lost 2 All-Star drivers with Chase and Chastain. A handful of others were damaged. Is this Exhibit A of why the Open should come back?

DENNY HAMLIN: To be fair to them, yes, correct. Truthfully, I couldn't tell did the All-Star Race start at lap zero or did it start at lap 150, the official All-Star Race?

Q. Zero.

DENNY HAMLIN: See, there you go. I don't think so. You're only going to have 25 cars.

When y'all print off a sheet, is it going to have 36 cars, or is it going to have 26?

Q. The last segment looked like it was a new race.

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, so I think we should know when the All-Star Race starts. Let's start there first.

I don't everyone know what your question was (smiling).

Q. Is this Exhibit A of...

DENNY HAMLIN: It stinks, right? Yes, of course.

First thing is let's give Dover their points race back, and then let's figure out where we're going to go, and then figure out the format. Let's start there.

Q. The result sheet has 26 cars.

DENNY HAMLIN: Okay then, I guess it started at lap 150.

Q. Now that you have the million, you would still prefer a points race here?

DENNY HAMLIN: Oh, yeah. No doubt. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like an All-Star Race should be at night. I don't even care where it is. Night was always something that was always...

I'm not trying to throw mud. They did as good as they possibly could given where they put this track in the schedule and whatnot.

But at night somewhere... I definitely prefer Dover as a points race. There's no other track like this on our schedule. It is so unique, and it requires such a unique style of driving, far different from any oval we go to that you can't lose tracks like this in our points schedule. I just think it's too valuable.

The fans really, really are passionate here. I'm a fan of this place.

Q. You were talking about studying. A lot of JGR leadership over the last year and a half has been talking about your commitment to the game, your studying. When you said you learned from Martin and Jimmie, what is it that you study?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I mean, I went through a transition probably around, I don't know, eight years ago, nine years ago, maybe even more than that, where I don't even care about lap times anymore. Like practice and ranks and fast laps, it's totally irrelevant to me.

I have that liberty because I know what winning feels like at most tracks, so I just try to replicate the feel. As long as I have the feel, the lap times, it's nonsense until we get to Sunday, because like today, the track is 30, 40 degrees hotter. We're going to have to have all the race cars on the racetrack. You're going to have to be good in traffic and lap cars.

I think my experience is carrying me more now than ever. I'm fortunate to have run so many laps at these tracks and now won so many that it's really easy for me to replicate the feeling I had last year here and then the year before that.

That's just all I search for. Doesn't matter whether we have more horsepower, less downforce. I'm searching for a feel. If I've got it, I know that then we're going to win.

THE MODERATOR: To clarify, there were three separate events, segment one, segment two, then the main started at lap 150.

DENNY HAMLIN: Three separate events. You got the most for your money today (smiling).

Q. On the restarts, I talked to Chris. He said you tried restarting out of different lanes to try to figure out what was going on. That's really the only weakness that you had all day, were the restarts.

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, it was my weakness at Texas, too. It's the reason we didn't win Texas is restarts, also. It's something that I got to get better at. It's a gaping hole in my game right now.

Q. How do you do that? What will you put into that? What do you study? You're a student of everything at this point. Even your teammates say how much time and effort you put into just being the best guy on the track every weekend. What do you do?

DENNY HAMLIN: I mean, I know it's got to be mostly me. I've never been, like, really, really good at restarts. Some of it, too, is where I guide the team to make my car fast. Sometimes it's not fast for one or two laps.

I need races to play out a certain way for it to all come together. If they come down to shootouts at the end, the guide and the direction I send the team is not advantageous sometimes for that.

So I think some of it is how we build our car. It's not good for a few corners. Other than that, I think I just have to see and study what guys in the front row do.

There was one restart in particular, might be the last one, that I just needed to see how did Chase get through turns one and two so much faster than I did? I could think of one thing. I probably short shifted a little bit too quickly into fifth, going into the corner, lost momentum. Bam, he just barely clears me.

Little things. All tiny margins that you have to figure this thing out.

Q. Just the fact of you giving back, 23XI you've worked with them. Chase said relying on you to come into Dover, finishing second to you twice, still there's learning to be done, but to have that opportunity of you giving back and making both organizations better, is that going to be part of your legacy, uplifting everybody, including yourself?

DENNY HAMLIN: It's an obligation you have, right? It's why Joe Gibbs Racing values me so much, is that they got young guys in that room that can listen every Monday and listen every Saturday after practice of first question: Denny, what is the track going to go tomorrow?

It's valuable information that all the teams get to make their adjustments with, and we'll debrief tomorrow. I'm sure they'll be listening very carefully, right?

That's part of your job. It's not just about getting the results for yourself. Joe Gibbs Racing expects me to lead the team in the right direction and give the feedback that makes all our cars better.

Q. Do you feel like now with the success you're having on track, with the success your team is having, that you're kind of peaking, that this is where you have felt the most confident?

DENNY HAMLIN: Oddly enough, yes. I mean, it's very weird and unique at this point in my career that I'm in this place.

But, like, if we're going to a track that turns left, I expect to win every single week. This is just very unique, especially in the era where all the cars are so similar, and I'm racing guys that have all my information, they see my setups, things like that, and still can get it done in the end.

It's very gratifying from my standpoint to still be competitive at my age.

THE MODERATOR: Denny, congratulations. Thanks for your time.

DENNY HAMLIN: Thank you.