Toyota had a truly remarkable race on Sunday at Phoenix. The Camry XSE finally broke its shell and emerged as a fast machine capable of taking on the Camaros. Despite the breakthrough, Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin has delivered a reality check by cautioning that it isn’t time yet for anybody to celebrate.
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Hamlin finished Sunday’s race in 11th place after an intense battle with 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick. His teammate Christopher Bell was named race winner, and three other Toyotas made it into the top 10. Back to the studio with his spoils from the desert, Hamlin put forth a key point that every team, including the Japanese maker, will do well to remember.
His words on Actions Detrimental went, “This is the first time with a new tire and a new Arrow package. Teams catch up. All these teams that struggled maybe ran in the teens, they’re going to make adjustments. They will get better in the next race and the next race. By the time we get the Phoenix in the fall, they’ll have a new identity. So, I wouldn’t overreact to what we saw.”
Whilst downplaying the importance of Toyota’s historic day, Hamlin also questioned the reasons for the slow day that Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) had. He spoke about how the team’s drivers struggled as much as the next driver when starting from the mid-pack and interestingly noted that Chase Elliott had the best speed of the HMS lot.
Why Denny Hamlin believes that it is too early to judge teams in the 2024 season
Continuing to explain his words about the improvement he expects from every team, Denny Hamlin detailed what he believed was going to happen over the course of the calendar. He said that teams have got to take the initial races with a grain of salt until summer arrives and until tracks like Bristol and Martinsville have been revisited.
He said, “Then you’re going to kind of see it. Everyone’s gonna have enough data on this. This simple diffuser and this new gauge tire, and you’re going to hone in on who’s got it figured out and who’s going to be the ones to beat when we get to the end of the year in the playoffs.”
Hamlin is yet to find himself a victory in the ongoing season and will travel to Bristol hoping to fix his place in the playoffs. He will hope that the second short-track race ends up giving him a better result than the first one at Phoenix.
