Denny Hamlin acknowledged that coming back to Phoenix Raceway still hurts a bit. The veteran controlled much of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship race in November, leading 208 of 319 laps, only to lose the title after a strategy call backfired on an overtime restart. Ahead of the big day, he shared his thoughts on returning to the track where that championship slip occurred.

Denny Hamlin hopes to avoid another painful repeat at the track

The 45-year-old 60-race winner returns to Phoenix sitting 23rd in the standings and will start 11th on the grid in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on Sunday. During his latest media availability, he opened up on his previous outing at Phoenix, which still lingers in his mind.

“I mean, yeah, I am still angry at the track a little bit,” he said. “But you know the track doesn’t have a soul, so it can’t feel many things I feel. You still have to come in here and start the whole process all over again, do all the right things, and see where the results pan out this time. Haven’t had a whole lot of races since we were here for the championship, so we’re just trying to get acclimated with where we are at this point and seeing if we can replicate some of the magic we had.”

Across 41 Cup Series races at Phoenix, Hamlin has enjoyed plenty of success. He has picked up two wins at the track, along with 17 top-five finishes and 24 top-10 results. His 1,147 laps led there rank third among all drivers. And in 2025, he was one of just five drivers to finish inside the top 10 in both Phoenix races.

“It’s hard to maintain it for all 37 races, so if you are behind, you still have some time to dig back out of it. But certainly with the Playoffs format, the regular season champ is going to be seeded high. So you can’t have 5-6 bad races to start the year out.”

With his pal Michael Jordan helping the team gain a lot of “notoriety,” Hamlin is also confident as an owner. His team’s season is panning out much better than his. Hamlin hopes that with their momentum and Jordan’s fame, they can land deals with some good sponsors for the ongoing season and beyond.

But that’s all about his problems. What does Denny Hamlin think about the issues that are ongoing in NASCAR currently?

Denny Hamlin tries to avoid cool suits

While multiple cool suit failures are plaguing the NASCAR races, Denny Hamlin has a rather easy solution for the same. When asked about his drivers and their usage of the suits, Hamlin retorts—

“I just tell them that if you don’t want it to break, don’t have one. It’s just kind of what you get used to over time.”

As a veteran driver, Hamlin has not been accustomed to the usage of cool suits. Hence, he does not really approve of the same thing. But at the same time, he is not critical of the drivers who choose to prioritize their health and safety. Hamlin agrees that the cars are much hotter than the previous generation. He believes that the cool suits are simply not good enough to keep up with all that heat in the cockpit.

“I think these cars are hotter than the previous generation was. So it’s a lot for those units to kind of maintain. It just feels like the hotter it is, the more these things get really strained. I don’t know enough about them because I don’t run them, but it seems like they were certainly having an issue last week.”

It remains to be seen whether improvements to the cooling systems will become a bigger priority in the near future.