Denny Hamlin is not going to let anything come in the way of his championship goal. Least of all, the numerical quantity of his Toyota Camry manufacturers on the Cup Series racetracks. Among the 36 drivers racing in the South Point 400 on Sunday, only 6 of them will be in a Toyota vehicle.

This suggests an apparent disadvantage in the face of 16 Chevrolet and 14 Ford racecars possibly banding together in support. In a display of unquestionable loyalty, Hamlin stood up to defend his manufacturing partners ahead of the playoff race in Las Vegas.

Denny Hamlin sees the glass half full for Toyota entries in the playoff season

Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Denny Hamlin has a longstanding relationship with Toyota, which dates back to its Cup Series entry in 2008. The Toyota-Gibbs alliance of 15 years has seen three championships with Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. On the Pocono Raceway earlier this season, Hamlin brought home Toyota’s 600th NASCAR win along with the #11 driver’s 50th Cup victory.

This year, 3 out of 4 JGR drivers qualified for the playoffs, and the 4th driver Ty Gibbs is bound to win the Rookie of the Year. When Toyota’s alliance was extended to 23XI Racing, the Japanese manufacturing giant found two more playoff contenders to bolster their success. Even after two eliminations, 4 out of the remaining 8 playoff drivers will race Toyota cars in the third playoff round.

Hamlin explained this in an interview with Frontstretch when asked about the impact of outnumbered Toyota cars on the field. He said, “I mean they apply their resources to less cars and obviously, they’ve been pretty successful doing that. And really, over the last 10 years, they’ve been solid when it really counts at the end, right?

“It’s a one-third, two-thirds disadvantage, but when you get down to the final eight and you got half the field, it’s pretty good, right? Certainly, I think the way they do things has been really successful, so it’s hard for me to second guess that.”

Denny Hamlin could rest easy even when it came to Toyota’s track record on 1.5-mile racetracks like Las Vegas.

Watch this story: NASCAR 2024: Elliott and Hamlin Unite Against Playoff Changes

Toyota’s unmatchable pace on NASCAR’s intermediate tracks

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The reigning pole winner Christopher Bell has undoubtedly showcased Toyota’s unbeatable pace. Edging past Kyle Larson’s Chevrolet by one-hundredth of a second, Bell placed his #20 Toyota Camry at the starting grid for the 6th time this season. Martin Truex Jr on the second row and the two 23XI Racing drivers in the 4th row have already condensed the bulk of Toyota’s entries in the Top 10 starting positions.

As far as mile-and-a-half tracks are concerned, Toyota cars have led 319 out of 534 laps in the previous two years in the Spring Kansas races and 123 out of 541 laps in the Spring Vegas races. Truex won the regular season championship in the #19 Toyota Camry and Denny Hamlin is one of the foremost championship contenders in the playoffs this year.

And as the JGR driver observed, it’s the playoff field that matters at the moment. Between 4 Toyotas, 2 Chevrolets, and 2 Fords, can we still call Toyota outnumbered?

“That Is Such Baloney’ – Denny Hamlin Debunks NASCAR Senior VPs False Assurances About Unsettling Playoff Format