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February 17, 2022: Toyota Racing teammates Denny Hamlin 11, Kyle Busch 18 Martin Truex Jr. 19, and Bubba Wallace 23 chat before the Bluegreen Vacations Duel 2 at Daytona International Speedway Daytona, FL. /CSM. Daytona United States of America – ZUMAc04_ 20220217_zaf_c04_254 Copyright: xJonathanxHuffx
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February 17, 2022: Toyota Racing teammates Denny Hamlin 11, Kyle Busch 18 Martin Truex Jr. 19, and Bubba Wallace 23 chat before the Bluegreen Vacations Duel 2 at Daytona International Speedway Daytona, FL. /CSM. Daytona United States of America – ZUMAc04_ 20220217_zaf_c04_254 Copyright: xJonathanxHuffx
NASCAR is certainly a team sport, even though it’s the drivers that are behind the wheel. Naturally, each member needs to work in unison to ensure the best out of their team. Speaking to this, the outspoken Denny Hamlin perfectly explained the nature of the sport saying, “it’s a team sport, we’re gonna win together and lose together.”
Reflecting on his previous runs, including the race at Richmond Raceway, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver elaborated on his point, by talking about his own team’s pit crews!
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ATLANTA, GA – MARCH 18: Denny Hamlin 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Shingrix Toyota watches the action on the jumbo tron screen during qualfying for the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 on March 18, 2023 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, GA. Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire AUTO: MAR 18 NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 Icon2303180707400
Discussing the race at Richmond where he finished 20th, Hamlin described how each member of the team played a pivotal role in leading the team to victory. The veteran proved his point, citing his JGR teammate, Martin Truex Jr‘s example.
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Denny Hamlin points out the significant role of pit crews ever since the swap at Joe Gibbs Racing
Ever since Kyle Busch‘s departure from JGR, there’s been a change in teams. Pit crews have been swapped among Martin Truex Jr, Ty Gibbs, and Hamlin. Talking about this, Hamlin went on a rant about how this can affect the team as a whole with each member playing a pivotal role.
Efficiency is the key here. So pit crews should be efficient so that they can shave off the extra time when the drivers pit in. Hamlin’s present crew, however, has been struggling at that.
“We did do a pit crew swap in the Playoffs so for those who don’t know, I have really Truex’s, team from last year, Truex has the 18 [Kyle Busch’s] team, that I had in playoffs last year, if I’m right.”
“And the 54 [Ty Gibbs] has the, my original team from the beginning of last year, and the 20 [Christopher Bell] has found their magic sauce and they’ve just been probably the most consistent of all the pit crews of JGR, uh over the last year probably, 10 months or so, so they’ve got their’s kinda hymned up and worked out,” said Hamlin.
Denny Hamlin opens up about the “rough patch” he is in
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At first, the veteran shares his fortune, saying that he has always enjoyed a great team with potent crew members, but then he reflected on the present scenario. He said, “I’ve had really good pit crews, uh throughout my career, the last couple of years, it’s certainly been a very rough patch for us.”
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Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin | Credits: Imago
Even when he reveals his positive side, mentioning his crews’ potential, still counting on them to get back to their winning ways, the 42-year-old gives us the unfortunate instance at Richmond where the team lost a whopping 20 seconds on the pit lane!
Hamlin had some bold words reminding his crew how things are from the driver’s side, “I don’t know how many races we lost by just not being able to control the race, i.e, come in first, come out first or just come out second or third, its just not these big catastrophic failures that are you know 20 seconds you know we’re leaving at Richmond and 20 seconds like, it just, you can’t overcome it, you just can’t overcome it.”
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WATCH THIS STORY: “Not different than our government” – Fans back Denny Hamlin as he exposes NASCAR’s dirty tactics.
With a rather impressive performance at Dover, coming home 5th, Hamlin would certainly be hoping to clinch his first-ever championship, counting on his team to back him up.
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