Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Denny Hamlin Interview after his win at Martinsville | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Fresh off his Martinsville victory, Denny Hamlin joins Kevin Harvick for this week’s Victory Lap! They break down how Hamlin finally grabbed his first Cup Series win of the season, what it took to conquer the paperclip, and how he balances life as both a driver and 23XI Racing team owner. Plus, Hamlin opens up about his long-term future in NASCAR—how much longer does he see himself behind the wheel? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now it's like we're all chasing these just small little things, whether it be doing your job on pit road, doing your job on restarts, doing your job, and all these other different aspects other than, you know, driving the race cart stuff on racetrack at full speed. Well, Denny, what a day yesterday has to be somewhat of a relief. It's been since last April that you've been to Victory Lane. You've got a new crew chief. What in the world has this process been like for you to go through?

through for the last basically almost a year. Yeah, I mean, I started last year so confident. We won, I think, you know, between the clash and all the other races like for the first 11 races and it was like, you know, this is going to be easy. We're going to have another eight, nine win season. And then all of a sudden, you know, we just lost it. We lost the edge of speed that we had. And really all of Joe Goods racing lost it.

And so it certainly was a little frustrating, you know, when you don't, win in a span of about a year. It feels like a decade in our racing terms. But, you know, I hadn't lost confidence in anything. But then we get to the offseason. You know, Chris sets me down, says he's leaving. He's going to be the comp director. And at that point, you know, I'm thinking, I don't want to start all over. Like, I'm too old for this. Like, I don't, this is going to take time. I just, I didn't love it. And I made it pretty public that I didn't love, the change and I was really worried kind of about like, you know, where does it go from here? And so at that point, I had a decision to make. And that decision was to be a professional,

do everything I can to, you know, give Chris Gail a fair shot at it, do the best I can to be the best driver I can be to give them the proper information, put in the work. And, you know, the relationship was just taken off and it's been pretty seamless. So you talk about the the time and effort and everything that goes into all this. I don't think people really understand and a lot of the young drivers don't really understand the time and effort that it really takes to be elite. You're elite. You and Chris Gail have developed a strong relationship or a strong performance to start the season. You and Gabe Hart had this relationship that I would relate to Rodney and I, and it's once in a lifetime type scenario from a driver's perspective,

and you develop your whole life around that. And you almost, you feel comfortable with the things you have to do. You feel comfortable with the things that they're doing. So how has your role had to change in this process to really establish in yourself as being different kind of as the leader? How has that changed for you and what you do leading into this year and up to this this point of getting this first win. Yeah, it's changed over time. And as you know, at the kind of end of your career, right, the information has, you have way more information now than what you used to have. And I've said when, you know, myself and Jeff and Jimmy were dominating back then, it was way easier than what it was is now. Because if you finish second,

third, fourth back in those days, it was like, no problem that the guys are just going to come up with a better chassis or something better arrow or like, you, you, you know, you. you had enough things to work on within the race car to make up the difference. And now it's like we're all chasing these just small little things, whether it be doing your job on pit road, doing your job on restarts, doing your job in all these other different aspects other than, you know,

driving the race car stuff on racetrack at full speed. And so it's taking a tremendous amount of time to continue to perform at this level and it's getting harder and harder because I think everyone is getting better and better. And it's trying to find an edge at these racetracks now when essentially anyone that can log on a website can go and look and see what you're doing, it makes it really, really difficult. And so I've taken certainly a lot of pride and continuing to be on top of my game, even as, you know, did the years go by. When you look at last year and you compare it to, you know, it's very similar. You guys had a lot of success to start the year.

The year didn't end in the way that you wanted to. And what has this been like for you mentally outside of the driver's seat when you're having to balance, you know, everything that's going on with 2311? You had to go find a new crew chief for Bubba. You had added a car. How do you balance all the time? Got another kid on the way. Got another kid on the way. Yeah.

You know, so that circle of life for you has been changing. What's that been like mentally? And you mentioned it earlier. And for me, the time and the balance of life became difficult at the end of my career. And with this car, you mentioned the workload that goes with it. So mentally, how have you balanced all of that? How do you balance all of that? Because from the outside looking in, it's a lot.

It is a lot for sure. And it's not easy. I'm not going to say it's easy. But it's all the things that are going on in my life are the things. that I love. I'm not doing anything I don't love. And that's one thing that I can definitely say about my career and this point of it is it's hard for me. I get bored really easily. And to be 20 years into my career and still have a passion for what I'm doing as a race car driver is still at an all-time high. I mean, you know that when you can go to the racetrack and every seven days you have an

opportunity to win, that is a great, great feeling. You don't always win. You know, you If you win six, seven percent of your career, like you're a Hall of Famer in this sport, you're going to lose more times you're going to win. But I love the process of trying to be good at it. And I don't believe that I'm one of the more gifted drivers. I can put two hands, guys that I feel like are more gifted. But I feel like I work hard. And that work ethic that my father instilled in me when I was a kid and bought me a go-kart

and says, okay, well, if we're going to go to the racetrack this weekend, you maintain it, you clean it. This is not my hobby. This is yours. And you have to put in the work to, you don't get to just enjoy all the spoils of winning and driving and you leave everything else up to everyone else to do. Like, you have to grind up and you have to fix your wrecked race cars. That really instill the work ethic in me that still lives on today. And it applies to everything that I do, whether it be running 2311, building that race team. I knew that when we set out with 2311, it was going to take five years to get that team to where it was in the same category as a Hendrick Motorsports, a Joe Gibbs Racing,

or a Penske. Those three have had a lockhold on this series for decades. They've been part of it for a long time, and they've just, they dominated everything. And now finally, in year five, I feel like those cars are getting to where they're in that conversation with the big three teams, that's gratifying, but I know how much work it took off the scenes to get it to that point. You know, I've had a hand in everything, competition and sponsorship and all that. It's so gratifying. And then I've got my family life that it is a balance. And right? And am I missing some things right now with my kids, you know, having track

and stuff on the weekends? Yeah, I'm missing some things. And I think that there'll be a point in my, in my life and my career where I'm going to say, okay, I'm not as competitive on the racetrack. I'm missing a few things that I don't want to miss. And then you have to make that tough decision to hang it up. And so that time is closer to me than it's ever been. But it's still, you know, I have some goals that I'm really trying to achieve. And I want to achieve them. And I'm going to do everything I can to not be the weak.

link when we go to the racetrack every week. You have any advice for the new commissioner? No, I tell you, it's great to see, you know, that the steves get promoted. I'm a big fan of Steve Phelps and Steve O'Donnell. Steve O'Donnell was working in the competition, just the competition side when me and you were running, you know, a decade ago and to see kind of their, you know, step up to the NASCAR ladder that's great to see. And I think they'll do a great job for NASCAR in the next.

decade or so that they're doing this. So, you know, it's great to see, you know, I think they all put in a ton of work continuing to, you know, try to grow the sport and whatnot. And obviously, we, we have some disagreements off the racetrack, as you know, going on right now. But I still have a tremendous amount of respect for them as people. Yeah. Well, I do as well. And I have a lot of disagreements as well. But last question. I look at that burnout. Was that something that was planned? Because that really is probably going to be a contender. Chase Elliott did a great job of drifting around the fence at Bowman Gray. A whole lap. Was that a plan? I was actually happy that the rear tires lasted that long. So it told me I did a really good job on that long run of keeping some rubber on the tires because I saw people saying I was copying Larson, but I actually did it first.

I did nearly a full lap back in 2015, I think, when I wanted that track, did the same thing, the opposite burnout all the way around. I thought Larson probably executed his a little better than I did, but Larson, you know, wins a lot more than I do nowadays. So he's got the experience at it. But, yeah, it's hard to keep the rubber on it. If I had to do it all over again, I would have done second gear instead of first. It didn't produce quite the amount of smoke I was hoping for it. but I wanted to give all the fans the opportunity to get a good photo off as I was going around. Well, it was pretty awesome.

And I can't tell you how happy I am. I see all these stats before the race. I see more stats than I ever have in my life. And you have to be 30 and under to win it, Mark, Bill, in the next year. I'm so happy that you just put a dagger right in the middle of that thing, one of them for the old guys. So super happy for you, man. I don't think a lot of people realize how much time and effort and your passion for this sport. is very obvious from my standpoint. So keep it up. I hope you win a bunch more.

Well, I appreciate it. And I saw some stats this morning kind of like on, you know, when the guys that retired, you know, stopped winning. And there's one guy that's way up on that chart. It's Kevin Harvick that won. And I remember, you know, when I started this podcast a couple years ago, I was like, well, that guy's still winning. He's 46, 37 years old. And still kicking our asses. So hopefully I'm half as competitive as. as you were at that age because it's it's a great feeling well you're doing a great job have a rest of the year thanks for joining uh appreciate you taking in time yeah guys thank you