Denny Hamlin says he lost 'new record' eight pounds at Daytona

Denny Hamlin is claiming he set a new record for his weight loss inside his car following Saturday’s race at Daytona.

While the race didn’t shake out like Hamlin would’ve liked, he explained during his latest Actions Detrimental podcast that he forwent wearing a cool shirt at Daytona, and perhaps that wasn’t his best decision ever.

“We chose not to run a cool shirt yesterday, and that decision has got to be made pretty early in the week. You’ve got to kind of look at the temperature. ‘Well it’s going to be night, 80 degrees. No problem.’ It was no problem. But yeah, it was a bit steamy,” explained Hamlin. “I did set a new record for myself for weight loss. I had eight pounds lost from naked before the race to naked after the race. So that was a record for me.”

Additionally, Hamlin elaborated on a study being conducted on drivers throughout the season, pertaining to their weight loss inside their race-car.

“Basically the University of Florida is measuring a couple of guys throughout the year, in different scenarios,” explained Hamlin. “Based off of outside temperature, are you wearing a cool shirt, are you not. They measure your heart-rate, they measure all kinds of internals.

“… They’ll take data and they give us kind of a — and they also put a salt patch on my arm, just to kind of show us what’s the best way to rehydrate. Are you a salty sweater or not? I’m really not, so I don’t need to be taking in a bunch of junk. Really water is sufficient.”

The results of that study will be fascinating to see. Until then, we’re willing to bet Denny Hamlin will lean towards rocking his cool shirt, especially while racing in the State of Florida.

Denny Hamlin admits his prediction for chaotic Daytona race was wrong

Continuing, Denny Hamlin is admitting he was wrong about his prediction for Saturday’s race at Daytona.

Like many others, Hamlin thought we’d have a chaotic, wreck-fest on our hands for the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale. While there were some big ones throughout the contest, it wasn’t like that for the most part, so Hamlin is taking his medicine. 

“I guess I was wrong. I was wrong. I called for chaos. Wrecks all over the place. Eh,” said Hamlin, via his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I can tell you, for 70% of that race, I sure was hoping for some wrecks,” explained Hamlin. “I’m sitting there just riding in the back, waiting on a caution, and it never comes.”

Alas, Hamlin’s strategy didn’t exactly work out for this style of race at Daytona. Even when he tried to run up front, he decided to drop to the back and wait out a wreck, but the wreck never came.

“There was a point that I pulled out of the pack,” added Hamlin. “You know, I bailed on the pack, because I was three-wide bottom, and this is when the action was actually getting pretty dicey. It was three-wide by three-wide for a bunch of rows, and I’m trapped on the bottom. So I can’t go anywhere. I’m not going to go forward. I’m not going to the side. I can’t, I’ve got someone pushing me from behind. I just was like, I don’t have the track position I really want, so I’m just going to bail here and count on a wreck about to happen, and eliminate the odds of being in it, and it just never happened. 

“Then we had a pit road penalty, under green, which you just cannot have, and I then just watched the race for the rest of the race. I’m just in the back of the pack.”