Denny Hamlin didn’t comply with his crew chief, Chris Gayle, after he cut his tire during Saturday’s Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway. It all happened on Lap 107 of the 400-lap event at the iconic high-banked tri-oval superspeedway, often regarded as "The World Center of Racing".
Per reports, Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota suffered a cut right front tire, sending the field into caution. Gayle asked Hamlin to go to the garage, but the driver didn’t listen. He said he would rather pit and get his tire fixed.
Renowned journalist Matt Weaver quoted the on-air exchange between Hamlin and Gayle, who happens to be in his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing. He wrote,
“Hamlin and Gayle”
“108/160”
"Go to the garage."
"No I'm going to the pit area. Pit pit."
"Copy that."
"Just get the tire on it so we don't lose another lap ... We f****d it up. We made our car worse. I can steer the car for now."
Hamlin finished the race outside of the top 20, at P25. But it shouldn’t matter as the Tampa, Florida, native is already locked into the playoffs, thanks to his win at Martinsville earlier this year.
Hamlin has three more wins at Darlington, Michigan, and Dover. He sits third in the driver standings with 766 points to his name. 25 races into the season, the speedster has 11 top-fives and 13 top-10s to his name.
Denny Hamlin is the longest-tenured active NASCAR Cup Series driver without a Championship. He has been a full-time contender in the series since 2006. A second-place finish in the Championship standings back in 2010 was the closest he has come to bagging the titular win.
Denny Hamlin shares his thoughts on last week’s race at Richmond
Denny Hamlin said that he loved how last week’s race, the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, played out. According to the JGR icon, the Virginia race track produced some “great short-track” racing.
What impressed Hamlin the most was the tire fall-off. Thanking Goodyear for it, Hamlin said (on his Actions Detrimental Podcast),
“Thank you Goodyear, for bringing a tire that had over two to two-and-a-half seconds of fall-off. Fantastic. Richmond was kind of one of the very first short-tracks that was getting the, 'Oh man, this is kind of boring' type-feel, right? It's good to see that the tires do matter.”
Denny Hamlin finished the race in P10 and thus bagged his 13th top-10 of the 2026 season. Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon won the race, with Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, and Austin Cindric rounding off the top five.
“I can speak about this, because I participate in the race. I drive the cars. I know how difficult it is to pass during this race versus the previous, versus the previous, versus 10 years ago, versus 20 years ago. I know because I did it,” Hamlin added.
Next up for Denny Hamlin is the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Scheduled for Sunday, August 31, the 367-lap race will be televised on USA (6 pm ET) with radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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