{"id":183837,"date":"2025-08-29T04:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/183837\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T04:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:02:08","slug":"denny-hamlin-has-full-confidence-in-crew-chief-chris-gayle-insists-lawsuit-wont-affect-playoff-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/183837\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin Has Full Confidence in Crew Chief Chris Gayle, Insists Lawsuit Won&#8217;t Affect Playoff Chances"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight:400\" data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-1\" class=\"data-event\">For perhaps only the sec0nd time in NASCAR history (the late Dale Earnhardt as both a driver and team owner), a driver in contention for the Cup championship is pulling for two different teams.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight:400\" data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-2\" class=\"data-event\">Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thesportsrush.com\/tag\/denny-hamlin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-utm_source=\"article\" data-utm_medium=\"content\" data-utm_campaign=\"link\">Denny Hamlin<\/a><\/strong> obviously wants to win his first-ever Cup championship for himself and his team. But if he and JGR\u2019s other two playoff contenders Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell fall short, Hamlin would like to see another team, 23XI Racing \u2014 of which he is a co-owner along with NBA legend Michael Jordan \u2014 to win the championship.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight:400\" data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-3\" class=\"data-event\">Hamlin had a wide ranging interview during <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/speedwaymedia.com\/2025\/08\/27\/toyota-gazoo-racing-ncs-playoff-media-day-quotes-denny-hamlin-08-27-25\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-utm_source=\"article\" data-utm_medium=\"content\" data-utm_campaign=\"link\">NASCAR Cup Media Day this week<\/a><\/strong> and here are some of the highlights of Hamlin\u2019s answers to questions posed to him:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Has he noticed anything different about crew chief Chris Gayle this week?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-4\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cI just hope he maintains a level head and takes it as freely as what I am. I\u2019m not going to put any undue pressure on him. I think he\u2019s very capable and certainly has led this team to have as many wins as anyone else in this series. <\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-5\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cI have got full confidence in him, and as long as he maintains that level head and doesn\u2019t change based off of the moment, I think we\u2019ll be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What makes your 19th year in the Playoffs different than the previous years?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-6\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cIt\u2019s just another chance to roll the dice. That\u2019s it. I don\u2019t feel any better or any worse than what I have last year or the year before that or the year before that. They\u2019re all very, very similar. <\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-7\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cI feel as though our team is as strong as it\u2019s ever been, but we\u2019ve seen in the short sample size, it\u2019s just a matter of whether you get unlucky at times or you catch a caution at the right time or not. Do you stub your toe on pit road? Those are the small things that decide whether you move on in the Playoffs or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you expect to make the Championship 4?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-8\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cYeah. It\u2019s the goal at the beginning of the year is to make the Championship 4. To do that you obviously have to put in some work during the regular season and you\u2019ve got to perform well in the Playoffs. I think our record in the Playoffs speaks for itself. <\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-9\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cOur average finish drops every year in the Playoffs. We run better every year in the final 10 than what we do in the regular season. It\u2019s just a matter of all the other variables. <\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-10\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cDoes someone who\u2019s way below the cut that ran horrible, do they win and get in and knock us out? Or does someone ride the wall and knock us out? Again, I\u2019m so tainted that I\u2019m just very nonchalant with like let\u2019s just win races and let\u2019s see where this thing ends up.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you think you\u2019re treated fairly and is <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thesportsrush.com\/tag\/23xi-racing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-utm_source=\"article\" data-utm_medium=\"content\" data-utm_campaign=\"link\">23XI<\/a><\/strong> treated fairly as the lawsuit goes on?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-11\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cI think we\u2019re treated fairly by the NASCAR officials that are at the racetrack. Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who isn\u2019t treating you fairly?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-12\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cThe others.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Does (the lawsuit vs. NASCAR) affect you?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-13\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cNo. It just makes me angrier.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How do you tune that out and focus on your job?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-14\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cBecause I want to win the championship. I want to win 60 or more races and so that is my No. 1 goal and so I\u2019m not going to let anyone distract me from that no matter what their motivations might be.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can you and 23XI win a championship this year with everything going on?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-15\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cYeah. Because I believe the people at track treat us very fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For perhaps only the sec0nd time in NASCAR history (the late Dale Earnhardt as both a driver and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":183838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-183837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115110067812732221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}