Denny Hamlin: Texas Motor Speedway 'is coming into its own'

Texas Motor Speedway doesn’t seem to be very popular among NASCAR drivers, fans and media members alike. However, Denny Hamlin believes the track is improving, and the racing on Sunday was better than it’s getting credit for.

During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin proclaimed that Texas is “coming into its own,” developing into a solid venue. While some tweaks would go a long way, the 44-year-old didn’t pan the track like many did over the past couple of days.

“It does challenge you. It’s a very challenging track,” the Chesterfield, Virginia native stated. “The banking is more in three and four than it is in one and two. So, to have a car that is optimized in one style of banking versus another, it’s extremely difficult. You’re not going to get it perfect in both. You usually try to pick and choose where you think you’ll make passes that weekend, and set your car up for that. … It doesn’t make it a bad track. I think you know, if it was one car-length wider, you’d really have a great racetrack. But I think it’s, you know, it’s coming into its own.

“I know it’s not going to be great on the [Jeff] Gluck [good race] poll. It’s probably got a bit of history in fans minds of not being a great racetrack. But I don’t know, I thought it was it raced okay. I didn’t have many issues with it. I think the track did widen-out. The PJ1 is slowly starting to wear off of that racetrack, or the resin — whatever they put on it. So, it’s coming into its own.”

All told, it was a weekend to forget for Denny Hamlin, but it’s evident he fancies Texas Motor Speedway a bit more than the rest of the Cup Series field. When NASCAR returns in 2026, he’ll be hoping for a better result than the busted engine he had in the Wurth 400 this past weekend.

More on Denny Hamlin, Texas Motor Speedway

While Denny Hamlin is defending Texas Motor Speedway, he didn’t spend much time Sunday racing at the track. His engine caught on fire during Stage 1. Shortly after the incident, the veteran spoke to reporters about what caused the fire.

“Just the lap before, it started misting,” Hamlin said, per Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. And when asked if he received any warning about the fire, Hamlin said, “No, not really. It just blew up.”

Before the fire, Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road. He went down pit road twice because too many people talking on the radio at the same time and he heard the “Cowboys” code name. 

“You can’t call a team that’s the same f***ing name as another …. Never mind,” Hamlin said on the radio. “You boys were talking over each other, and I heard ‘Cowboys,’ and obviously I looked at my card.”

It was a tough break for Denny Hamlin, who was looking to bounce back after a P21 finish at Talladega last week. However, the 44-year-old has performed well in the first half of the regular season, as he’s won two races and finished in the top 10 in six races. 

— On3’s Brian Jones contributed to this article.