Denny Hamlin reveals what is most likely to hinder 2025 title run

Beginning the NASCAR Cup Playoffs with a pole position in the Southern 500 is a great start, as Denny Hamlin embarks on his 19th appearance in the postseason.

Hamlin remains Cup-less despite 58 career wins and nine different seasons where he finished inside the top five in points. And while a contentious lawsuit rages in the background, Hamlin recently said he won’t “let anyone distract me” in his hunt for the crown.

What could end Hamlin’s title run?

In 2025, Hamlin has four Cup wins, including the most recent race at Darlington. But what would he describe as the Joe Gibbs Racing team’s ‘Achilles Heel’ as they look ahead to the final ten races?

“Just execution,” noted Hamlin in a press conference following his pole. “That is the only thing that I can think of. If it is going to be posted on speed, pit crew, all of those things. We are at the top of the list, certainly in the upper echelon that are going to be racing for the championship, but there is all the variables that we just don’t know about. Ill-timed cautions, you pit, green flag cycle and someone crashes coming onto pit road, and a yellow comes out.

“It changes the complete complexion of the race, so it is some of the things we can’t control and some the things we can. It is all of the other stuff. It is not speed. It is not qualifying. It is not long run speed. We have all of those things. It is just other things involved in NASCAR racing that can take you out.” 

Still work to be done

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

The stellar qualifying effort came after a practice session where the No. 11 Toyota struggled a bit, and Hamlin admits he was ‘worried’ about carrying those struggles carrying over into qualifying. While that thankfully wasn’t the case, there’s still work to be done to ensure the car remains competitive throughout 500 miles on Sunday.

“I was worried about, well, if we are stuck in this box for the weekend with this setup then we will probably qualify bad, we are not going to get very good stage points – on and on and on, but that is thinking too far ahead,” explained Hamlin. “It is about the moment and what I feel like we can do well is, we kind of put things aside and say okay, we will handle that later. Let us figure out what we need to go fast for one lap. What do you need for that? So, I focus on that. Give them the information and they make the proper adjustments like they did right there, so it is a big momentum boost for myself personally to know that we are able to get the car where it needs to be, even though it was considerably off in practice.” 

One of the bigger challenges for a race like the Southern 500 is the transition from day to night, and keeping up with the changes will be pivotal in maintaining track position.

“Even the advantage that you have going out later in qualifying versus early, is a big, big difference, and then at the start of this race, there will be some sort of sunlight and then we are going to go into full night to build some adaptability in your car,” said Hamlin. “We always plan for the end of the race and we figure out how to make it work at the very beginning, so certainly, when you start up front like we are, that is going to help us band aid the car for a little while until it comes in.”