"He gets a lot of s**t" - Denny Hamlin defends Austin Dillon's recent performances & "silver spoon" perception in NASCAR

Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon has not had the best start to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season and fellow driver Denny Hamlin is the latest to acknowledge the same. The #3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver was involved in a wreck in three out of four events this season. Dillon's P16 finish during the sport's visit to Sin City in the 2024 Pennzoil 400 is his best result so far.

Denny Hamlin, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and owner of a team in the Cup Series, attributed Austin Dillon's performances to luck (or lack of it). The #11 Toyota Camry XSE driver also touched on Dillon's perception in the sport due to his family ties with RCR owner Richard Childress.

Hamlin elaborated in a recent episode of his podcast Actions Detrimental and said:

"Austin Dillon has had some crap luck. I love Austin. He’s a good person. Austin gets a lot of s**t, because he’s racing for his grandfather. People think he’s silver spoon. Austin Dillon is a great person. He’s a fantastic human. Doesn’t deserve a lot of the flack that he gets. Man, he’s had a bad run at it."

While Austin Dillon has been considerably outperformed by his teammate Kyle Busch at RCR, Hamlin still believes the tides need to turn in the #3 driver's favor for him to show off his full potential on the track.

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Denny Hamlin elaborates on naming 23XI Racing's new headquarters 'Airspeed'

The Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI Racing team will be relocating to a new headquarters. The team invested $16 million to build and move to a new race shop.

Aiming to take the next step in the lifecycle of what is still a young team in the NASCAR Cup Series, Hamlin and Jordan want 23XI Racing to consistently contend at the front of the field.

Denny Hamlin recently spoke about why he and Michael Jordan decided not to call the new facility a race shop, giving it the 'Airspeed' moniker instead. He told Bob Pockrass in an interview:

"Airspeed is just a combination very similar to 23XI. 23 is him (Jordan), XI (11) is me. Airspeed is air for him, speed me. We just feel like that is a good identity for that building. We're building fast cars. Anybody can call their building a shop, but we are pretty confident that this is ‘Airspeed' worthy."

Watch Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon compete during this weekend's Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway.