Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to media after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series event at Watkins Glen International on Saturday:
Do you intend to be back at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2024?
“I intend to for sure. It‘s what I want, and I think it‘s what Joe (Gibbs) wants. There‘s just a lot of factors that are out of both mine and his hands. Again, if I didn‘t own a team, I think this would be done by now, but there‘s just a lot of different factors that play into it and whether we can get it done or not. All you hope is that this late in the season that everyone is putting their best foot forward to compromise and come up with the right deal that‘s good for everyone.”
Is there a possibility something might change with Toyota?
“I‘m not trying to insinuate anything for sure, but I think that I‘m happy at Joe Gibbs Racing and Joe (Gibbs) is happy with me. I think that certainly with the Kyle (Busch) situation last year, Kyle‘s ask was his ask. And Joe Gibbs needed sufficient funding on the car to do it. From the day one, to give you inside baseball, Joe said I could have zero sponsorship on your car. It doesn‘t matter. We want you and this is what we‘re going to do. It‘s different in that sense. It‘s easy to draw parallels because you hear I‘m saying some things Kyle said and Joe is saying some very similar things, but there‘s just more factors in play than just us for sure.”
Do you feel good about 23XI being with Toyota next year?
“We‘re working on it. We certainly are very happy with Toyota. They‘ve been great to me and helped me get this team off the ground. I‘ve won the bulk of my races with their cars. I feel like it‘s a partnership that should continue.”
— Toyota Racing —
