The Chicago Street Course weekend was supposed to be another opportunity for Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team to tighten their grip on the NASCAR Cup Series standings. Instead, the grid buzzed with confusion and frustration as Hamlin’s car sat idle during critical practice laps. In the garage, whispers of a technical mishap quickly escalated into a full-blown controversy, drawing in not just the team but the entire Toyota Racing Development (TRD) operation, a $221.23 billion automotive giant suddenly under the microscope.

The team’s frustration was palpable, but so was the sense that this was not just an isolated blunder. In a candid conversation, the crew chief of the #11, Chris Gayle, spoke out about why his driver was so frustrated in Chicago.

Chris Gayle explains Hamlin’s frustration

The incident in Chicago unfolded almost instantly. As Hamlin left pit road for his first practice lap, a catastrophic engine failure sent the No. 11 spinning and leaking fluid in Turn 6 before he could even complete a circuit. The incident forced Hamlin to start at the rear for Sunday’s Grant Park 165 and, perhaps more critically, robbed his team of precious practice data and setup time on a tricky new street course.

Denny Hamlin recovered well during the race, managing to stay out of trouble and work his way up to a 4th-place finish on the streets of Chicago. However, Gayle was blunt in his assessment of their situation after the race. Gayle told SiriusXM NASCAR, “I think it’s just a problem beyond JGR, beyond anything in our team right now that we just need to get sorted, and it just happens, unfortunately, this is not what you wanna have happen. But there was more than likely a problem out of our control that TRD I’m sure, will get addressed really quickly and is doing everything they can to sort that out and come to a full conclusion with what happened and how to prevent anything like that from happening to any of the rest of us.”

Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, voiced his frustration at being sidelined in Chicago by issues out of his hands. “We want to be in control as drivers. We want to be in control of our results. You don’t want to have processes or mechanical issues. Stop you from that, and obviously, this is a race track where it’s important to have reps. We spend hours upon hours practicing, getting ready all that stuff, and you know, couldn’t even make a pace lap before we blew up.” Hamlin explained, highlighting the helplessness drivers feel when something that no amount of training can prepare them for ruins their race.

However, Gayle did not forget to note that the #11 has been in such situations before. “If you’re in Denny’s shoes, he’s had quite a few instances here over the last calendar year or so. So it’s just frustration on his part.” This is not the first time TRD has found itself in the spotlight for procedural missteps. In 2024, a “grievous mistake” by TRD led to NASCAR docking Hamlin 75 points and 10 playoff points after his race-winning engine from Bristol was rebuilt by Toyota before NASCAR could inspect it. Back then, TRD president David Wilson took full responsibility, stating, “TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race.” 

For Gayle and his crew, the frustration is compounded because such incidents are out of their hands, even as crew members. “You don’t need to have those kind of incidents at all, right? It doesn’t matter how much time you focus on car preps and what the strategy’s gonna be, what the setup’s gonna be… if you can’t make laps in practice, you can’t be better… You don’t have anything to build the notebook or know if you’ve made the right call before you start the race… so you can’t really develop in that case,” he explained.

Practice is essential in NASCAR. Those 20 minutes on the track give drivers a feel of track temperature, tire grip, fuel mileage, and numerous other details. Missing out on those leads to having to rely on previous years’ data or other teams’ SMT data. As a crew chief and driver pairing, this is not ideal, as practice is the foundation for strategy building and helps you build a race for the spotter to call.

For Hamlin, 44, such mishaps must hurt more than they used to. Being in the back half of his career, still winning races but searching for that elusive championship, this means the world to him. And this year, Hamlin’s odds are looking the best they’ve been in a while.

What a long-awaited championship would mean

For Denny Hamlin, the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is more than just another shot at a championship. It’s another shot at rewriting his legacy. Now in his 20th full-time year, Hamlin has once again proven his class, collecting three wins, nine top-fives, and ten top-tens through the first 18 races. He currently sits fourth in points, with victories at Martinsville, Darlington, and Michigan highlighting a season defined by both resilience and execution. His average finish of 13.3 and nearly 500 laps underscore that the No. 11 team remains a weekly threat.

Yet despite all his success, Hamlin’s career remains shadowed by near misses. He has 57 career Cup wins, more than any active driver without a championship. Heartbreak has become a recurring theme from losing the 2010 title in the final race, to a runner-up finish in 2020, and being eliminated by a ‘hail-melon’ move from Ross Chastain in 2022. Each season, the pressure mounts, with fans asking if this will finally be the year.

As the playoffs approach, every race feels like a referendum on Hamlin’s career. A championship in 2025 would mean validation after years of heartbreak and near-misses, cementing his place among the sport’s greats. Therefore, such mishaps on TRD’s side only feel 10 times worse with the grim possibility of it happening when it matters most. For Hamlin and his fans, each lap is another chance to finally silence the doubters and deliver the title that he has been waiting for so long, and they can only hope that luck is on their side in 2025.

Do you think Denny Hamlin can overcome his demons to win a championship in 2025? Let us know in the comments!