Denny Hamlin's right hand man breaks down driver's mounting mechanical frustrations

Denny Hamlin faced a mechanical issue, specifically a blown motor, during last Saturday’s Cup Series practice at the Chicago Street Course, and that left the NASCAR veteran frustrated as the engine failure prevented him from getting any meaningful track time. His crew chief, Chris Gayle, recently explained why the #11 Joey Gibbs Racing Toyota driver was so frustrated at Chicago.

After exiting Turn 4, Hamlin began accelerating, but his #11 car’s engine catastrophically failed—blowing the bottom out—spraying fluid and causing a spin before he could even complete a pace lap on the streets of Chicago. Moments after, the JGR veteran was heard seemingly showing frustration on the car radio while talking to boss Joe Gibbs and competition director Chris Gabehart at JGR.

On SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Denny Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gayle, broke down the #11 driver’s mounting frustrations over mechanical issues and said:

“You don't need to have those kind of instance incidents at all. It doesn't matter how much time you focus on car prep and what the strategy is going to be, what the setup is going to be. If you can't make laps in practice, you can't be better. You don't have anything to kind of build a notebook or know if you've made the right call before you start the race.”

“So you can't really develop in that case. And if you're in Denny's shoes, he's had quite a few instances here over the last calendar year or so, and so it's just frustration on his part, like, okay with part of trying to get more depth at JGR, Gabeheart going to the competition role, all these things, was to kind of get in front of a lot of these problems.”

This wasn’t an isolated incident. The #11 driver has experienced engine failures at Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway earlier this season. This recent mechanical issue has become a growing concern for JGR and Toyota.

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“There was more than likely a problem out of our control that TRD” - Denny Hamlin’s crew chief

Denny Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gayle, earlier stated that Hamlin’s blown motor issue was likely due to a problem beyond JGR’s team's direct control—implying it may have been related to equipment or components supplied by Toyota Racing Development (TRD). However, he is confident that TRD will resolve the problem soon.

Earlier, in the aforementioned interview, Gayle said:

“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 the season.”

With no practice time in Chicago, Denny Hamlin missed valuable reps on this tricky 12-turn, 2.2-mile street circuit. He started last weekend’s Grant Park 165 from the back of the field and worked his way throughout the 75-lap event to score a solid P4 finish.

Catch Denny Hamlin and JGR in action at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, July 13, 2025.