Denny Hamlin opened up about his father’s reaction to his 60th career win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Notably, Hamlin’s win comes as his 75-year-old father battles health issues.
Sunday’s South Point 400 witnessed a different side of Hamlin. Instead of his usual taunts, an emotional Hamlin shed tears for his father, Dennis, both in-car and during the post-race interviews.
Reflecting upon the same, Hamlin went over his relationship with Dennis on the latest episode of his podcast, Actions Detrimental.
“He’s just so proud of me,” he said,”I mean, I don’t know what to say. I, you know, I don’t want to come off super soft and that’s not me. But, it’s great because, you know, he always sends me messages and stuff after the race and we have phone calls that, you know, talk about it and he’s always got questions.” [43:00 onwards]
“But either way, it’s like he’s always like, “You’re the best. You’re the best.” He’s my number one hype man when it comes to confidence,” he added.
Denny Hamlin faced tough competition at Las Vegas. He lost his lead early on to JGR teammate Chase Briscoe, while Kyle Larson was the dominant driver of the day with 129 laps up front.
However, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell’s late-race incident played into the hands of Denny Hamlin, who was running in tenth at the time. In the ensuing restart, Hamlin began on sixth and eventually regained his lead from Chase Briscoe. He then held off Kyle Larson to finish 1.533 seconds ahead.
On the same episode of Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin detailed his plan for the final four race at Phoenix Raceway. This is the first time since 2021 that Hamlin will compete in the title decider.
NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi called it a ‘dangerous’ proposition that Hamlin has a three-week head start to the finale, but the No.11 driver begged to differ.
“I really think that it is probably an extra week. It’s not too as advertised. Like no one’s running the sim and working on their Talladega setups right now. I think that everyone in the top eight is working on Phoenix this week because there’s just, you know, Talladega is you’re running the same setup you ran for the last three years at that racetrack,” Denny Hamlin said. [19:30 onwards]
The top four candidates as of now are all JGR drivers, with the only exception being Kyle Larson in second. Larson and Hamlin previously fought for the title in 2021, and the HMS driver came out on top.
The two rounded out the podium places in their last outing at Phoenix, while Christopher Bell finished ahead and made it a hat trick of victories.
