Denny Hamlin has battled nagging mechanical gremlins all season, turning strong runs into headaches at the clutch moments. Just look at the Coca-Cola 600 back in May, where a fueling mishap cost him a shot at back-to-back wins, dropping him to 16th. Then came Chicago in July, when his engine blew before he could even log a pace lap. These setbacks pile on top of a throttle glitch at Talladega last weekend that sent him to 24th, all while he’s chasing his elusive first Cup title.

With a Vegas win on October 12 locking him into the Championship 4, Hamlin knows Phoenix leaves no room for error; every bolt and wire counts on that flat 1-mile oval where strategy can flip in an instant. And his blunt take cuts through the noise, laying bare the raw edge of these woes as the finale looms.

Denny Hamlin clears air on JGR’s deeper mechanical roots

On the latest Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin didn’t mince words about the frustrations bubbling under Joe Gibbs Racing’s Toyota hood. “Yeah, because I can’t change it. Regardless, if it happens, it happens, it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But, you just cross your fingers and hope that the luck gods will stay in your favor for one more week or the final week.”

This came right after a Talladega throttle hang-up from debris. And it forced a long pit stop, erasing his top-10 run and echoing a stuck throttle that sank his 2024 Martinsville practice. Hamlin‘s calm acceptance masks deeper worry; after six wins this year, tying his career high, these “what ifs” hit hard when Vegas’s triumph barely kept his title shot alive.

The conversation sharpened when the host pressed on the reminder to button up for the playoffs. “Yeah, that’s a great point, a fantastic point that, like, sometimes it is a good reminder that you just can’t take things for granted,” Hamlin replied. “You know what I mean? And nobody is, you know, trying anything out of the ordinary, or again, I don’t think it’s… the shop. Let me just say, that’s a very vague term. That’s not. I don’t believe these issues are in the race shop.”

He’s pointing fingers away from his crew, whom he calls “phenomenal.” But Hamlin does point his finger toward the broader gremlins, like the batteries, starters, and clutches that bit him all season. Phoenix demands perfection; a single failure there could snatch his dream, just as it did when a 2024 Bristol engine penalty docked 75 points.

That sentiment rings true in his broader vent: “Yeah, it’s really, really frustrating because we want our results dictated by our performance on the racetrack. Nothing would absolutely suck worse than to go to Phoenix and have a mechanical or something happen that took your opportunity to achieve your dream out. And so, we’ve had some issues with batteries and starters and clutches and just lots this year. I had all three.”

Hamlin wrapped up Talladega with a P24, but his focus had already shifted toward Phoenix. With his first title on the line, he’s determined to avoid any mechanical gremlins that could derail his all-season domination and his first elusive championship trophy. As he clarified, the issue isn’t about anyone in the shop making mistakes; it’s just about making sure nothing slips through and he gets a result based on his sole performance and not some luck factors coming into play in the face of any new mechanical problem when it matters most.

Even Kevin Harvick weighed in on his Happy Hour show, noting, “They’ve had this throttle problem a few times. And when you look at it, I think that’s where the frustration from Denny came from on the radio—it was the fact that they’ve dealt with that particular issue.” Harvick ties it to Next Gen quirks hitting JGR hard, like Bell’s rotor woes and Wallace’s brakes exploding. For Hamlin, with 60 wins but zero championships, it’s personal; Phoenix’s tight pack racing amplifies any slip.

As Hamlin eyes Martinsville this weekend to shake off the rust, his words linger like a checkered flag warning.

Inside Gibbs’ game-changing push for Briscoe

Denny Hamlin turned analyst on the same podcast, breaking down Ty Gibbs‘ clutch call at Talladega that sealed Chase Briscoe’s upset win. In overtime chaos, Larson sputtered out of gas up front, leaving Briscoe and Bubba Wallace door-to-door for the lead. Gibbs, boxed behind in third, dove inside with Briscoe, slingshotting his JGR teammate ahead while settling for third himself.

“It’s good to see, and he was definitely boxed in there,” Hamlin said of Gibbs’ split-second gamble. “I don’t think he had a lot of options, but he had the option when the #19 pulled out, and that was to either stay straight or go with the #23 or push the #19.” Gibbs had no clean lane left; pushing Wallace risked a JGR intra-team tangle, so backing Briscoe made sense in the superspeedway shuffle where alliances flip fast.

Hamlin praised Gibbs’ maturity in his sophomore season, where he prioritized house over solo glory, echoing JGR‘s playoff push with two cars now locked in.

The move’s ripple? Briscoe’s triumph denied Wallace a deep run, but Hamlin saw the 50-50 odds clear. “It’s so 50/50 on which lane he was going to push the best,” he added. “All it takes is a person and that top line to pull out and go three wide, and I’m telling you folks, you can’t, you can’t imagine it at home.” Talladega’s draft setup often crowns the bold; Gibbs’ hook turned a potential wreck into a teammate spot in the final 4, setting up a fierce Phoenix showdown.