Denny Hamlin has spent much of his career pushing NASCAR machinery to its limits, but one of his most unusual high-speed experiences happened away from a racetrack. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver recently recalled an encounter with a police officer during the time he owned a Lexus LFA, resulting in a rather extraordinary opportunity to find out how fast the Japanese supercar could go.

Hamlin was asked about the fastest speed he had ever achieved in a car outside a racetrack. His answer was 168 mph, although the circumstances behind that number were considerably more unusual than a conventional speeding incident.

Rather than immediately issuing a ticket, the officer who had pulled him over apparently offered to help him measure the car’s performance.

“I actually, when I had my Lexus LFA, I had an officer pull me over pretty early on and say, hey, what’s the fastest you’ve gotten that thing up to? I says, I really haven’t opened it up yet. He’s like, what do you want to?” Hamlin recalled in an interaction with Complex Sports.

What followed was not something most motorists would expect after being stopped by law enforcement. According to Hamlin, the officer offered to temporarily block off a section of interstate so that the NASCAR driver could make a high-speed run while being clocked.

“So we made it happen. And he actually took a picture of him behind me in the speed. I only had so much space to let it go,” Hamlin explained.

The officer reportedly told him that he would call once the coast was clear and briefly hold traffic away from the section. Hamlin then accelerated past the patrol car while the officer measured his speed. The available stretch of road ultimately limited how long he could keep accelerating, but the run still produced a reading of 168 mph.

Hamlin’s story brings back memories of another high-speed Lexus encounter involving his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, the late Kyle Busch. In May 2011, Busch made headlines after being caught travelling at 128 mph in a 45 mph zone in Iredell County, North Carolina. He was driving a yellow Lexus LFA that had been loaned to him by the manufacturer.

Busch was cited for speeding and careless and reckless driving after being stopped on a road between Troutman and Mooresville. The incident attracted considerable attention, particularly because of the speed involved and the fact that he was a professional racing driver. Busch subsequently addressed the situation publicly, accepting responsibility for what he described as a serious lapse in judgement.

“I was test-driving a new sports car and I got carried away,” Busch said in his apology. He also acknowledged that the car was a high-performance machine that should have been driven with caution, adding that he had failed to exercise that judgement.

There was an interesting connection between the two drivers during that week. Toyota, which supports Joe Gibbs Racing, had arranged for Lexus to loan the LFA to both Hamlin and Busch. Hamlin had even posted a photograph of the car on X the day before Busch’s incident, joking, “If u see me today in ur rear view driving this Please move!!”

When asked about his own driving in that LFA, Hamlin told the Associated Press that he had only gone approximately 10 mph over the speed limit. “That car is absolutely amazing. The best driving machine I’ve ever been in,” he said at the time, while acknowledging how difficult it was to resist the car’s performance. He had also ordered one for himself and was hoping to receive it the following March.

The thing about the LFA is that it was never an ordinary luxury sports car. Lexus built only 500 examples worldwide, powered by a naturally aspirated 4.8-litre V10 developed in collaboration with Yamaha. The engine produced 552 bhp, revved to 9,000 rpm and gave the supercar a manufacturer-claimed maximum speed of 202 mph.

Its performance figures were impressive, but the engine note became just as important to the LFA’s reputation. Lexus specially developed its induction and exhaust acoustics under the name ‘Octave Harmony’, drawing inspiration from the sound of a Formula 1 engine at full revs.

The result? Today, it is one of the most celebrated engine soundtracks among supercar enthusiasts, with the LFA frequently mentioned among the best-sounding road cars ever made. Anyone who says otherwise must get their ears (and their taste in cars) tested.

Hamlin’s association with the supercar also continued well beyond the original Toyota loan arrangement. In July 2022, he shared a video of himself taking an LFA out for a drive on the Nurburgring, writing, “Took her out for a spin for our 10 year anniversary.”

The post offered another glimpse of his connection with the car at that time, although there is no update on whether he still owns one today.

Hamlin’s 168 mph recollection and Busch’s 128 mph speeding case are two very different stories, but both involve the same remarkably rare Lexus. One driver remembers an officer apparently helping him measure the car’s speed, while the other had to publicly apologise after being caught well beyond the posted limit.

For an LFA with a 202 mph claimed top speed and a V10 capable of screaming at 9,000 rpm, the temptation to explore its performance is understandable. But Hamlin’s unusual encounter remains just that: an anecdote about a past experience, not a model for testing a supercar on public roads.