At the end of 2024, a whirlwind of changes hit the NASCAR Cup Series No. 11 team. Denny Hamlin and Chris Gabehart parted ways as driver and crew chief after the latter was promoted to Competition Director. The driver also lost a handful of sponsors, including 20-year-old partner FedEx. Despite the sudden changes, Hamlin put his foot down on his 2025 plans and delivered remarkably. And that is the same approach that the Toyota star wishes to apply to a recent dilemma.

The Bass Pro Night Shops Race thrilled NASCAR fans. Featuring lead changes, frequent passing, and comers and goers, Bristol captured the essence of high tire wear once again. However, this time, Hamlin’s car faced problems in the race. Yet the veteran knows how to tackle them.

Denny Hamlin dabbles only where his duty is

After recovering from a euphoric high at Gateway, Denny Hamlin started Bristol on a good note. Rolling off 6th place, he kept his No. 11 Toyota consistently in the mix, running top-10 laps and scoring a respectable 10th-place finish in Stage 2. However, problems surfaced soon after. Despite having new tires on lap 373, Hamlin lost a right-front wheel on lap 385 – the same time the No. 11 made contact with AJ Allmendinger’s No. 16 Chevrolet. This fallout, deemed a safety violation in the NASCAR rulebook, resulted in a two-lap penalty. Additionally, the suspension of two crew members is also being considered. However, Hamlin made a 4-word bold confession to this possibility: “Not even my concern.”

In a recent episode of ‘Actions Detrimental’, Denny Hamlin reflected on how his team would definitely be downsized ahead of the races at New Hampshire and Kansas. “I think so. Which is super unfortunate because we were the only guys on pit road during that time. There was no indication, no heads-up or anything if it was loose leaving the pit stall. I’m not sure…I don’t have an answer for how or why, but more than likely.”

But at the same time, Denny Hamlin focused on his own duties. Those involved performing with whatever he has, like when he adapted to Chris Gabehart’s absence. So Hamlin pushed the crew responsibility to Chris Gayle, the current 11 crew chief. “I have no idea who’s sitting on the bench, who’s ready…That’s the crew chief. He manages the people. There’s nothing I can do about it. My concern needs to be about things that I can control. I’m worried about oh my gosh, the villains are this and that. Are they young, are they old, are they good, are they bad…You’re just wasting my energy….That’s someone else’s department to be concerned over. I’m gonna do my job to the best of my ability, and we gotta win with whoever we got.”

Fans unleashed an uproar over Denny Hamlin’s penalties, citing the NASCAR lawsuit. Although 23XI Racing is facing a tough time, Bubba Wallace gave his team owner a few rough laps in Bristol. In the opening laps, the No. 23 Toyota got to the left rear of the No. 11, forcing it wide and overtaking it on the inside. This sparked a disastrous few laps as Hamlin was unable to get back to the preferred inside line, with rivals like Kyle Larson getting away. He dropped 7 spots to 13th place, after which he was able to advance again.

Clearly, Denny Hamlin’s Bristol outing was plagued with issues. Meanwhile, the veteran analyzed the Bristol race, which was similar to his 2024 spring victory.

When the experiment spills over

In March 2024, Denny Hamlin’s Bristol Motor Speedway win created waves. That race featured over 54 lead changes with massive tire wear, sparking a Goodyear tire experiment. After several instances of trial and error, NASCAR’s wheel partner finally struck gold on Saturday night’s race. The event presented a struggle to most drivers for the entire 500-lap race. In fact, the tire wear was so extreme that NASCAR had to issue a different set of tires. Multiple cars caught on fire due to excessive tire rubber buildup. What is more, Jeff Gluck’s Good Race Poll received 80.6% positive votes. However, Denny Hamlin found an issue: he couldn’t run hard at all without being “toast the rest of the run.”

Hamlin reflected on how the tire wear was probably a bit too much. “I knew if I went hard for two laps, I was toast the rest of the run. You typically would want a tire where you can go if you want, but you’re going to pay a little bit on the back side; you can’t go at all. If you look at the lap times, we all went at the very beginning of the race. Some of the fastest laps were like 15.5s. If you look at every run after that, everyone just starts slowing down more and more and more just to try to conserve life. Even cars that were trying to push it couldn’t go quick anymore. It’s maybe a little aggressive.” He added, “My advice would be to put some more grip into the left-side tires to take the loads off the right to give the rights a little bit of a break.”

Clearly, Denny Hamlin has some things to look at from the Bristol race. However, rest assured, we will see the veteran in his top form in New Hampshire and Kansas, no matter the setbacks.