Denny Hamlin names Kyle Larson and himself as the only teams at “elite speed level” ahead of 2024 NASCAR playoffs

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin has claimed that he and Kyle Larson are the only drivers in the playoffs who are at an "elite level" of speed. He also discussed his chances of winning his first NASCAR Cup Series championship this season.

The #11 Toyota driver will make his eleventh entry into the playoffs this season. He won three rounds in the regular season, mounting a successful campaign. Although he has entered the playoffs more than any other driver on the grid, Hamlin is yet to add a Cup Series championship win to his racing record. Talking about the same, he stated that "crazy things" have taken him out of the playoffs in the past.

"It's so different because I feel like every year for one thing or another, it's not happened, right?" he told SiriusXM. "And I feel for the most part, I've done as good as I can do. But there's been some crazy things that have happened that have taken us out of the playoffs. So while I've remained confident, I'm very confident that there's still only two to three teams that can win every single week. We're one of them."

Hamlin also acknowledged that JBR has been underperforming on superspeedways. He further claimed that speed-wise, only he and Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson are consistently setting the pace in the competition.

"We still can't control the fact that we can go to Atlanta and get wrecked this weekend. I think we have, we're the worst team on Super Speedways this year scoring points-wise. We've gotten caught in everyone's crashes. It's just different. And so, you know, I have to come to peace with do the best that I can and whatever the result is, it is," he said.

"But speed-wise, I just don't think there's anyone, you know, besides us and the #5 that are on an elite speed level," he added.

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Denny Hamlin's 23XI Racing skips deadline to sign new Charter Agreement

Teams did not react very positively to the new Charter Agreement deal that NASCAR presented. It has been reported that the teams wanted to have a bigger share of the revenue that the sport was earning. However, almost all of the teams agreed and signed the new agreement as the deadline approached.

Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing, however, did not sign the deal. In a social media statement, they explained that they missed the deadline because they were not given the opportunity to negotiate fairly.

Hamlin had previously expressed openness to a fair deal for the charters. However, the current agreement did not meet the team's expectations.