Denny Hamlin reacts to his Toyota Camry getting detonated in Texas

Denny Hamlin reacted to his race-ending incident that saw his No.11 Toyota Camry catch fire at Texas Motor Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran shared how he tried to keep his car from "full detonating" to help his team identify the issue.

With six laps left in Stage 1, Hamlin abruptly dropped off his pace before flames started blowing from his car's underbody. Suspected to be a potential engine issue that led to an oil fire, Hamlin was left to rue his first DNF of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Hamlin spoke with the media post-race and shared his take on the incident.

"It was blowing up for a lap or so before it really detonated. I tried to keep it off to keep it from full detonating, that was they can diagnose exactly what happened to it. It's tough to say exactly what it is, but they'll go back and look at it and we'll find out in a few weeks," Denny Hamlin said via Speedway Digest

When asked if such engine issues are tied to a recurring effect across the field, he replied:

"I’m not really sure. I’ve had blown engines in two or three season in-a-row now where we didn’t have any issues several years prior to that. Just trying to develop I'm guessing and trying to get more. Certainly, we feel like we need to get a bit more power but this was unexpected for us."

Ryan Blaney recently endured multiple engine failures at Miami and Phoenix, but the Team Penske driver assured that they were isolated incidents and not part of a larger underlying issue.

The result placed Denny Hamlin in the tail end of the field at 38th, marking it his second DNF from 36 starts at the Fort Worth track.

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Denny Hamlin clarifies pitstop mix-up at Texas

Before his engine woes, Denny Hamlin endured a miscommunication over team radio that sent him to the rear of the field. When a caution was deployed after Noah Gragson's spin, Hamlin got confused over a radio code while the rest of the field pitted for fresh rubber.

Reflecting upon the setback, Hamlin spoke to NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass and said:

"Miscommunication between me and the team. They gave me a code, it was too close to another code, and I just got mixed up there."

In Denny Hamlin's favour, the race result didn't cause much change in his ranking, as he comfortably sits at third (338 points) with five top-five finishes, including two consecutive wins at Martinsville and Darlington. Meanwhile, his fellow Toyota teammate at JGR, Chase Briscoe, also suffered a DNF and dropped a spot in the drivers' standings (13th with 245 points).