Chris Gayle, Denny Hamlin’s crew chief, recently commented on Hamlin and his mindset heading into the next round of the playoffs. He maintains that despite the distractions off track, like a lawsuit, it did not play a role when it came to improving the car and winning the championship.According to his crew chief, Chris Gayle, Denny Hamlin continues to be goal-oriented with his JGR targets, despite distractions like 23XI Racing's pending antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR over the league's charter system. When Gayle asked Hamlin how the driver could separate his thoughts and focus only on racing-related issues during a meeting or when he was on the simulator, Hamlin replied that he could not think about anything other than racing-related issues. According to Gayle, Hamlin's discipline and experience are the main causes of ongoing performance and concentration, even in the frenzy off the track. In an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Chris Gayle said:"I spend a little more time with him and I watch him come in here for competition meetings and for our simulator sessions and I don't hear anything about the lawsuit, what's going on at home. It's totally focused on the race car, on the 11 car and what we need to do to make it better, whether it's that competition meeting or whether it's our simulator session. So, you know, I just take it as though he has enough experience. He knows what he wants out of this last part of his career and he's very focused on not letting these other things that could be distractions for others be a distraction for him."Denny Hamlin is the Cup Series leader with 2,120 points and has collected 5 series wins (the most among any other driver this season), 2 poles, 12 top-5, and 15 top-10 finishes. His fifth victory came at the World Wide Technology Raceway in Gateway, where he dominated 75 laps with the last 25. This is the fifth season Hamlin has won at least five times, a feat that he had not accomplished since 2020. Together with his teammate, Chase Briscoe, he has been guaranteed a ticket into the second round of the playoffs.Denny Hamlin issues reality check as Toyota draws the spotlight after consecutive playoff victoriesOn his Action Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin discussed the hype of Toyota dominating the 2025 NASCAR playoffs. Toyota won two of the last three races with Chase Briscoe and Hamlin himself winning at Darlington and Gateway, respectively. However, Hamlin reminded the fans that the championship race is not over. He emphasized the standout performance of Team Penske drivers, providing examples of Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, who are capable of winning the playoffs at the end of the season, despite having a not-so-loud regular season. On his podcast, Denny Hamlin said:"I still think it's anyone's race, and I just think the narrative could change very, very quickly. So how would public works—you know, yesterday was a very fortunate race for us in that we had good speed when it really, really mattered and had good restarts when it really, really mattered, but we were also very fortunate with some cautions in the way they felt." [01:00]Hamlin praised Hendrick Motorsports, particularly noting a strong recovery by the team that had been struggling prior to Gateway.