NASCAR CUP SERIES: CRACKER BARREL 400

May 31, 2026

Denny Hamlin

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to go ahead and continue with our post-race press conferences here. We're joined by our race winner Denny Hamlin. Congratulations on the win.

You were here obviously yesterday and made it very clear that this one was on your list and winning that guitar was something you really wanted to do. Talk about that final restart and what it means to finally take home the Nashville victory.

DENNY HAMLIN: I definitely -- it was very unexpected. We had a few where we were the best car this year and we didn't win because of restarts. It felt really good to get one back that we certainly shouldn't have on speed.

The 20 had us covered. I think he passed us about three or four times today. But I just learned from my mistakes earlier in the season and how I approach restarts. It really kind of started in the first corner. I was able to get -- go to the bottom of the 20. I didn't shift the car very well. He cleared but drove in really deep and allowed me to get beside him.

For the next two laps, I kept side drafting then trying to drive in deep enough to clear him, and I realized he was not going to let me clear him.

So at that point, I knew we were not making optimum lap time and corners. So I learned from my mistakes, and on the final lap, I said I'm going to roll the bottom. He's probably going to drive in really deep thinking that I'm going to drive in deep, but I'm going to switch it up on him and get a good run off instead, and it was good enough to clear him.

Q. What is the mindset going into turn 1 on the last lap when you're racing two teammates and you're three wide?

DENNY HAMLIN: Wild. I knew that me and the 20 had an awful 3 and 4 coming to the white. That was my last attempt to drive in deep and clear him, and I realized -- I mean, he was not going to let me. At that point, I just said I'm going to run the fastest last lap that I possibly can and not worry about where he's at or anything.

So we come to the white, we got a terrible run-off -- I know that 19 had a run. I don't even know where he was until I saw a replay. I didn't know we were actually three wide bottom. But at that point, I just said I'm going to roll the bottom, and wherever the 20 goes, he goes, but I think that I can still stay beside him if I just hold it low and not try to drive in deep.

I think that he tried to not let me clear him and he also tried to clear the 19 and just went too deep there and allowed me to clear.

Q. In that moment, are you even thinking about the potential catastrophic outcome of it could wipe out not just two JGR cars, but we're talking three?

DENNY HAMLIN: That's why on the last lap I committed to just run the bottom. The two laps before where I tried to clear him, we both were up the racetrack. I think one of the corners we were stuck on each other the entire corner. I thought that our wheels had locked together.

So at that point, that's why I said on the last lap, I'm just going to run the bottom. I'm not going to wipe us out. I'm not going to try to self clear myself like I had done in these situations, and that was the best way to finish the last lap.

Q. Your first win since Kyle's passing. You are now one win behind him on the all time wins list.

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, it's -- you know, I thought about it and certainly aspired to eventually get there. I knew my career was going to end before his career was going to end, and we didn't know what was going to happen, but I had kind of resigned to the fact that I thought we weren't going to overtake Kyle, and we still might not. We don't know if this is the last one. We don't know.

Yeah, it just shows how good he was for so long. I saw the stats online where we ran together 500-and-some races, and he finished ahead of me ten more times than I beat him in the same equipment.

He certainly taught me a lot. He was by far -- it was interesting too, I mean, you see so many tributes and people have stories that you just didn't know. Then I didn't realize just a few months ago he had a Q&A, and he asked who has he learned the most from teammate-wise, and he said me, and I was like that made me feel good. I didn't realize that he had said that.

Yeah, it was an honor to be his teammate for 15 years. He raised my game. Without him as teammate, there's no way I win the races I win, especially the ones like today.

Q. Both you and Chris tonight have talked about restarts aren't your strongest suit. I'm curious, you mentioned having to work on that, and as the saying goes, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but how exactly have you fixed that part of your game to where you're able to pull it off tonight?

DENNY HAMLIN: Well, I switched my game mid restart. Again, I approached three to go and two to go far different than I approached it with one to go. So it's almost like showing someone a defense or a shot fake and just you keep doing it and keep doing it. They then think, well, you're going to do it again.

So on the last lap I said, no, I'm going to just do something totally different, and that is what allowed me to clear off of turn 2. I did not drive into turn 1 hardly at all because I knew that he was going to drive in really deep, and the only way I was going to beat him was I needed to keep inside position.

I just didn't know that I was going to get such a good run off, and he got a poor run off because how deep he got -- he was trying to clear me and the 19.

So I switched it up mid race. From turn -- it really was into turn 3 coming to the white, I made my last attempt to clear myself. At that point I realized he was not going to let me clear. So I needed at that point just to run the fastest lap time I can on the last lap, and that's what we did.

Q. First, talking about restarts, what went through your mind when they called you for jumping the initial start?

DENNY HAMLIN: I was trying to figure out why no one else went. That was the first thing. I looked in my mirror, and I was like, I thought it was time to go. But I said nothing on the radio because I just, you know. When I looked back to kind of where I went, I was like, yeah, I went before the restart zone.

I just -- usually as the leader, you can dictate when to go, but it was way too close to turn 4 and not close enough to the start/finish line. No arguing it or anything like that. It was certainly the right call.

Q. A lot of really close quarters racing tonight. I know that's kind of how a lot of these races tend to go these days, but how would you describe the intensity of what tonight was?

DENNY HAMLIN: Well, the restarts were crazy because, again, this racetrack is so track position sensitive that your car just drives dramatically different in the back than it does -- we set up my car today to be out front. We planned on being out front the whole time, and we just were not good.

We didn't make great overnight adjustments, which was my fault. I sent us down a path that was definitely wrong. So we struggled today. When I say we struggled, we were not the best, you know. We usually have been the standard for speed on these types of tracks, but just the 20 passed me, again, many, many times today. The 19 passed me with 50 to go or so.

I just, I resigned to the fact that we weren't going to win this thing, but I just learned from my mistakes. I was surprised. Especially with that caution in the shootout at the end, 15 cars on the lead lap I'm thinking -- you heard me on the radio. I was trying to talk Chris into pitting, and he was like -- I think he actually said, my call, we're staying out. So I love that he is the leader and he makes himself -- makes the calls that he feels confident in.

I didn't feel confident in it. I had been so mediocre on restarts all year, that starting inside third, I'm just thinking finish the race in third. But I got such a good launch at the 20 that it allowed me to get position there in the first corner.

Q. Lastly you're back within 100 points of Reddick now unofficially. Is there a realistic path to the regular season championship with 12 races left?

DENNY HAMLIN: Not really. We'd have to win three or four more races. He's going to have to have some DNFs and stuff. Not really. My goal is to try to stay P2, and that will be close enough with 10 to go.

Q. These are obviously split second decisions. From the driver's seat, how tough is it to call an audible on the fly when you're battling for the win on the final lap?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, you just -- 21 years in, the game slows down to me. I'm interested to see kind of what my WHOOP says for my heart rate. I usually keep it pretty low throughout a race anyway. But I never felt any adrenaline or anything the last few laps. It was just like a regular old restart.

I understood the stakes. I was very excited when I came off of turn 2 side by side for the lead after the first corner, but in these situations, you've got to just keep a level head. I think there's many times that -- I failed in these restart scenarios far more times than this one success and this one that I was able to succeed in. So just I'd learned from all the mistakes that I've made and knew why I was not good on restarts to start the year, and I fixed it on the last lap.

Q. Denny, going back to the jump start, is there anything that you can pin that on? Did it just happen? Were you just not paying attention to where you were? Because you just, you took off by such a mile.

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I just don't know why no one else went with me, truthfully. I think there was a little bit of gamesmanship going on. The Denny bros had a bet with the car chief of the 45 on who finished ahead of who, so there were mind games going on even on the grid. My goal was to lead this race on lap 1. I did it, as it turns out, illegally, but it probably played into my decision of I'm going to get a good jump and I went too soon.

Q. The broadcast, I believe, threw up a graphic that said that's the first time in your career you've either had a start or a restart violation. Does that sound accurate?

DENNY HAMLIN: I think so, yeah.

Q. I wanted to ask you also about the restart. When something like that happens, does that just light a fire, or did you already have confidence that you'd be able to do what you did to come back and win the race?

DENNY HAMLIN: No. No, I did not. I knew that we were set up to be out in front, and I knew in traffic we were going to have a really, really tough time with the direction I sent the team overnight.

And we struggled. We -- I say we struggled. We still were competent. We were a top five to top ten speed. I actually had some really good restarts in the middle of the race that let me jump a few. One of the key ones was about a hundred laps to go. We came off third of the guys that pitted, took two tires, and I was able to pass the two guys that took two tires in front of me on the restart, and that let me control the race.

Now, I lost the lead certainly in stage 3 because we weren't fast enough, but it just kept me within shouting distance of the lead that let me restart third. I think that, if I don't control that race, I probably fall back even further, and I don't have the restart position on that last green-white-checkered or four to go, whatever it was.

Q. I'm not sure if you saw the Western Conference finals last night.

DENNY HAMLIN: It was amazing.

Q. Wemby had a really great quote about how he uses emotion to help himself achieve success and win and how he doesn't feel burdened to hide his emotion. How do you use emotion in a productive way? And do you wish that more athletes in NASCAR and other sports weren't as nonchalant about winning and success?

DENNY HAMLIN: No, I think everyone just needs to stay just like they are from my standpoint. Like I talked about, just in these shootout situations, I'm always processing what it's going to take to win, and I've made so many wrong decisions so many times that you learn from it. 21 years of experience helped me today, and the failures that I had helped me for today.

Those guys were another animal. It was incredible to see how poised that young team was, and I am just -- it's so exciting to see. Certainly you saw him and his emotions. That's why they're at the top. That's why they're going to be battling for a championship is because you have a young team like that that stays poised in game-winning situations, that's elite athleticism.

Q. You once were the young guy chasing the veterans and learning and getting that experience. Now you are fending them off. Is it harder to win now than it was then? Why are you still winning?

DENNY HAMLIN: It's definitely harder now.

Q. Why?

DENNY HAMLIN: The cars are closer than they've ever been. Now, no doubt that the Toyotas in general have a little more speed. When I say a little, it's nothing like the gap that it used to be when you could build your own cars and you had a new chassis every six weeks. I mean, you could outpace someone with your car speed.

So I don't know, the drivers play more of a factor now. Certainly the process that we have on our 11 car, I think, sets us apart from others. Then just I think it's our ability to keep learning. This was a great example of it.

I don't know why I still have the speed that I have, but I just, I approach every weekend the same as I always have, but I keep a large notebook every week, and I just go through it and I jot things down that I think are important that are going to make me win next time if I fail this time.

I don't know, I still -- I love the process more than I love winning, truthfully.

Q. You've talked so much about learning from past experiences and things that didn't go well. So what do you learn from a night like tonight where you have the success? Can you still learn from something like this, and what are you learning on a night like this that might help you, whether it's three weeks, three months, or next year?

DENNY HAMLIN: Well, there's multiple things. One is I talked about the path that I sent the team down that was absolutely wrong. We were talking in Victory Lane about what I need out of the car. Right off the bat, there's three things that certainly we needed to change to be as fast as what the 20 was.

But also what can be learned is just stay in it. Like I'm thinking going into that restart, how can I just keep my position here? How can I just not lose and end up finishing eighth like I had done all year? So I just changed my mindset a little bit, and it shows that like you're still in it. Keep yourself in the game, start in the first couple rows with a few laps to go, you've got a shot. You just never know what can happen.

I just don't know when the last one that I've won like this, where I won on a late restart that I wasn't already leading. It feels like it's been a while. I don't know when it was, but it makes it feel really good winning one that I definitely shouldn't have.

Q. Something I'm curious about is you just said you weren't leading on the restart that happened at the end. When did you know, during the chaos that was unfolding, the guys were losing rotors, that you might have a chance to get back into it and win?

DENNY HAMLIN: It was the restart with about 100-ish to go. It was when we took two and there was about four or five cars that stayed out, and I was able to start, I don't know, probably between sixth and eighth -- no, it was maybe a little further back than that. I passed four or five cars on that restart, just a couple laps, but it cycled me ahead of the guys I was on the same strategy with.

At that point, we're a hundred to go. We're now in control of the race. We have to stop one more the time, just like everyone else. We're on the same tires as everyone. That was the point where it's like we've got a shot to win this.

I realized pretty quickly when the 20 and 19 ran me down and I was sitting still that we didn't have a car capable of winning, but at that point I'm just trying to stay in it. I kind of resigned to the fact that we weren't going to win with about 15 to go, and I just slowed down.

At that point I knew we weren't going to pit again, or I didn't think we were going to pit again, so I just tried to save all the tire I could because I had a gap behind me. I knew I wasn't catching the leader.

So I just slowed down and didn't wear out the tires for about 15 laps in case of a shootout situation. I don't know if that was a deciding factor or not, but it certainly didn't hurt.

THE MODERATOR: Denny, we appreciate you joining us. Congratulations on that win.