NASCAR CUP SERIES: XFINITY 500

October 31, 2021

Denny Hamlin

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Denny.

Q. Your race in general, start in the back. You said you were pretty confident you could make it all the way to the front. How much pace does it take for you? How satisfied were you in doing what you said you would do by being able to get up there and fight for a victory?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I mean, we've just didn't really strong on these short tracks. No matter how far we're down in horsepower, how much better Hendrick cars are in general, we're fighting and we're clawing and we're still finding ourselves with a shot to win each week.

I knew that our 750 program in general has just been a lot better than the 550 this year. Some of the advantages that the Chevys have, it's not as big, it doesn't show up as much on tracks like this. You're able to just kind of finesse your way around the track.

Obviously it wasn't ideal starting in the back. I knew pretty early that after an adjustment or two it was a good enough car to go up there and contend.

Q. You're a native Virginian, had a lot of success here. Didn't do anything wrong here today, I don't think. Are you surprised at the fan reaction to you, how you're getting booed right now?

DENNY HAMLIN: It's just Chase Elliott fans, man. They don't think straightly.

Q. Does that bother you?

DENNY HAMLIN: No, not at all. They're going to boo the shit out of me next week, I can tell you that.

Q. Early in the race when you were back in the back, the 6 car incident, how close was that?

DENNY HAMLIN: It was close. It was closer than I certainly wanted to be for sure. Yeah, that's the tough part. When you get back there, you're not worried about really yourself causing an incident or whatever. Back there, those guys are fighting and bouncing off of each other. I mean, lap 10, there's door slamming. It's just a different, different type of racing back there. You really try to just tread lightly as you can. I think one of them hooked the other one.

That was the biggest concern I had, was just getting caught up or getting the grille knocked in early in the race.

Q. It's not one on one. You got a teammate. Kyle has a teammate. After all this season to be racing Kyle and two others for the championship, what does it mean to have that opportunity?

DENNY HAMLIN: I mean, I've said for many, many weeks now that it would be a disservice if someone other than the two of us didn't win. I mean, he's obviously probably the most deserving over the course of the year that he's had from start to finish.

But, yeah, the format, you just never know. Nearly it all ended right there in turn three for silly reasons. That's why I always preach about wish the sample size was bigger. You don't have somebody else's mistakes that can take you out of what you've done for the whole season.

Certainly I think when you look at the four that are in it, I think it's the best four that you could possibly put in that race. I think all of them would be deserving champions. Obviously Kyle would make the most sense.