“It’s a shame”: Denny Hamlin makes startling admission after $60M-worth boss Joe Gibbs comments on his racing skills

Denny Hamlin recently shared his thoughts on his performance in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, addressing both his race execution and the remarks made by Joe Gibbs Racing team owner Joe Gibbs regarding his driving abilities.

Hamlin started the COTA road course race from P11 but finished P22 after setbacks, including locking up and bumping RCR's Austin Dillon. Team owner Joe Gibbs, worth $60M (per Celebrity Net Worth), stated that race results are a 50/50 split between driver performance and race incidents. In a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental Podcast, the three-time Daytona 500 winner reflected on his performance at road courses, wishing that he was a 'better' road course driver.

"I qualified well, I mean come on give me a little credit here I mean, I got the toe knocked out, the fender knocked off in the first corner," said Hamlin [21:45 onwards]

The co-host Jared Allen then shared that he asked Joe Gibbs what was inhibiting them the most, the car or the driver, to which he responded about the aforementioned 50/50 split.

"I'm still committed to getting better though like I really want to. There was times throughout the race where I felt competitive like I was catching the top 10 cars, I could see them they were coming back to me I was running to them. And then there's just other times when it's like God dang man just hit a mark for once you know it's a shame because I actually enjoy road course driving, I just wish I was better at it."

Denny Hamlin, the seasoned driver of the #11 Toyota Camry XSE is in his 20th full-time season with Joe Gibbs Racing. He has built a remarkable career with 74 victories across NASCAR’s top divisions, including 54 in the Cup Series. Despite his consistent success and reputation as one of the sport’s elite competitors, the 44-year-old is still chasing his first Cup Series championship.

Hamlin nearly secured a top-five finish in Atlanta last Sunday; however, a P6 after what happened at Daytona was a good result for the JGR driver.

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Denny Hamlin on Kyle Busch’s Atlanta Truck win: "I didn’t think that was ever in doubt"

Denny Hamlin was not surprised after hearing that Kyle Busch secured a victory in the Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend. Hamlin and Busch are former teammates, and they competed together at JGR between 2008 and the end of the 2022 season.

Busch has been in a tough phase of his NASCAR career as he has been winless for nearly 60 races in the Cup Series. However, a win in the Truck Series, where he boasts 67 wins in total, was fairly within reach for the RCR driver, according to Hamlin.

"You could see that all race he was planning passes, timing passes, and to me even on the last lap where Stewart Friesen was at, he knew how to time it to get the lunge at the start/finish line. Kyle just knows that through so much experience." Denny Hamlin said[59:00 onwards]

""I didn’t think that win was ever in doubt for Kyle," Hamlin added.

Meanwhile, in the Ambetter Health 400, Busch finished right behind Denny Hamlin and secured a top-ten finish for his team.