Denny Hamlin’s podcast member reveals how the JGR ace secured the Ohio State Buckeye’s apparel before the actual team

The Cook Out Clash Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium kicked off the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and with that, Denny Hamlin is back with his crew for the first episode of this year's Actions Detrimental podcast. Hamlin's co-host Jared Allen started proceedings by pointing to the JGR driver's T-shirt which featured Ohio State Buckeyes as the 2024 National College Football Champions. Allen asked how Hamlin and his producer Travis Rockhold got the winner's T-shirt before the team, to which Rockford responded promptly.

The Ohio State Buckeyes concluded the 2024 season by winning the College Football Playoff national championship. They defeated Notre Dame with a score of 34 to 23 on January 1, 2025, securing their ninth national title and first in a decade.

"Because when you're a die-hard fan like Denny Hamlin, you get supplied beforehand," Travis proudly told Jared (1:10 onwards).

Denny Hamlin mentioned moments ago that they got it from the 'Where I'm From' clothing shop and added to Travis Rockford's response saying, "What kind of question is that?" Jared Allen followed up by asking if it was a "bad juju" to wear that thing before the team won the championship.

Hamlin then shared an interesting story of Rockford and himself attending the Championship game while wearing that T-shirt underneath other clothing items. He shared that there might be some videos of them trying to take off their shirts in the third quarter of the game.

"Travis is saying, 'No no, you put it back on, you put it back' because we had it underneath so we're peeling our layers off because it was like oh, this is game, and then Notre Dame goes on to score like 14 straight. And it was like, okay, we're still fine everything's fine," Hamlin shared (1:45 onwards).

Hamlin himself got off to a good start at the exhibition race at the Bowman Gray Stadium.

Denny Hamlin on how fans saw the new venue for the Clash

NASCAR returned to its roots at the Bowman Gray Stadium for the 2025 season-opening exhibition race for the first time since 1971. Denny Hamlin, who secured a podium in the Cook Out Clash on Sunday, February 2, shared his thoughts on how the fans perceived the first NASCAR premier event in over half a century.

Tickets for the Cook Out Clash sold out pretty much immediately after NASCAR announced its return to Bowman Gray on August 17, 2024. Stock Car racing fans came pouring in from 44 states and five countries, and while they didn’t witness the kind of carnage the Madhouse is known for, the fans seemed eager to return for the event in 2026.

"They took a facility here that's been around for a long time and made it feel like a brand new one. The fans obviously were very, very excited to see us. They were enthusiastic. We feed into that. It felt like a big event even though it's not a points-paying event or anything like that," Hamlin shared in a conversation with FOX Sports.

Denny Hamlin shared on his podcast another reason fans were so onboard with the Clash at Bowman Gray. He explained that it was a complete unknown for both drivers and fans, who would have been looking forward to seeing how the best stock car racing drivers in America navigate the challenging stadium track.