Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who leads the NASCAR Cup Series standings with three races remaining in the regular season. This interview has been edited and condensed, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions Podcast.1. Do you typically arrive for things early, late or on time, and why?Late. I’m pretty standard, three to five minutes late.2. What is the pettiest thing that annoys you during a race weekend?Not a whole lot annoys me on a race weekend. Is it petty to say rain delays? I mean, it annoys me. I don’t know if it’s petty. So I’ll just say rain delays in general.Ty Gibbs survives late charge from Christopher Bell to win at Iowa Speedway3. What is something you’ve learned to stop explaining to people?Why fans don’t like me. That’s it. That’s my answer.It’s just not worth the effort anymore?No. It’s “You wrecked the most popular driver,” and then all the stories. It’s too old.4. If you could go back to the early days before you reached NASCAR, what is one different decision you wish you had made?I truthfully don’t really have one. We never really skipped anything.I wish I was better when I was younger. I wish I knew the things I know now about racecraft. Back then, I would carelessly tear up a fender on a restart because I was young and just trying to go. That was hard on the family when I tore stuff up, and then hard on me because I had to go fix it.My parents made a lot of sacrifices. I would never encourage any family to put themselves on a financial ledge like they did. But it worked out. It’s just not something I’d recommend.5. What is it like to be in a debrief after a bad race?The mood isn’t quite as good, but I don’t let the mood change the process. I’m very thorough. I don’t just say, “Well, we sucked. The car wouldn’t do this.” The team needs really vital information to make sure it doesn’t happen again.So for me, I’m not in a great mood, but I also understand that any slump can be gotten out of. It’s up to me to start the process to fix it.Once again a title contender, Denny Hamlin is still searching for his elusive first Cup Series championship. (David Jensen / Getty Images)6. I’m asking each driver a pair of wild-card questions: One about the past and one about the present. In terms of the past: If NASCAR had kept the old playoff format after last season, do you think you would have come back for another year or would you have retired after the heartbreak at Phoenix?Had they not gone to the Chase?Yes.It was certainly a little bit of good news in my horrible-news offseason. It was like, “Oh, this is really good for us,” because I know we’re one of the top teams that performs every single week. It’s not just about these small sample sizes that can crown a champion. So it certainly was a factor in getting me excited again to go do it.I don’t know whether it really changed anything about retirement. But it absolutely made me more excited to come to the racetrack knowing that all this hard work wasn’t going to get erased every three races.That’s what bugged me about Phoenix. We did what the format said we needed to do! Finally, after trying all these different ways, we did it. We did what it said to do: Dominate. Go out there, do your best, be your best when it absolutely mattered. And then something I unfortunately couldn’t control changed who the champion was.7. In terms of the present, from the outside, you arguably appear to be as good or better than you’ve ever been in your career. At age 45, do you feel like you’re as good as you’ve ever been across the board, or are there areas where age has forced you to compensate?If a NASCAR driver’s skill set was broken into 10 categories, I’m better in eight and worse in two.Now, I study the two categories that I never really studied before to try to make up for what I feel are deficiencies. It used to be, “Well, my skill will handle that part.” Now I need to dig into it more to make sure I’m up to date.But those categories were better in your 20s and 30s?Yes.Why does that happen?Age, I think. Reaction time and all those things. I notice it more when I play other sports. As silly as my “Hoop Group” basketball draft is (for the recreational league that takes place at his home gym), I went from being a third-rounder to now I’m like a fifth-rounder. And the players are the same.That’s an ultimate telltale sign. I look around and I’m like, “Yeah, I’m with all the old guys down at the bottom.” (Laughs.) So that tells you I’m clearly not as sharp at some things physically.8. If you could get any driver’s helmet in the history of motorsports, whose would it be?Now it would probably be the Kyle Busch helmet — I think it was an Impact helmet when he had the Electric visor on his M&M’s helmet. That one just pops into my head because I remember it. It’s iconic. And obviously with everything that happened, that would be one that would be pretty special.9. When things are not going well, do you prefer people leave you alone or check in on you?(Laughs.) Leave me alone. I don’t want to be consoled. Let me come out of my hibernation on my own.My team has done a really good job of that. Just staying silent from when I get out of the car to the bus, to the car ride to the plane, then the plane ride. Usually about 15 minutes before descent is when I’ll come out of it.So everybody just waits on you to start talking?They’ll talk amongst themselves, but they won’t talk racing.They’re not saying, “Man, tough restart.”No. There are some people like (close friend and industry supplier) Greg Fornelli who don’t know how to read the room and say, “Hey man, sorry. That sucked!” (Laughs.)I’ll come around. I always come around.10. What is something about yourself that would surprise people who think they “know” you?I would think people generally feel like I don’t care what people think. But I do. Truthfully, I do care what people think. I heard Jamie McMurray in an interview last week after the Carson (Hocevar) interview. He said, “I always wanted to be liked. I wanted people to respect me.” I agree.I definitely have this “I don’t care” attitude. There are a lot of things I don’t let bother me. But I do care if someone has a negative opinion of me, for sure.11. What is something you laugh about now that was absolutely not funny at the time?The Danica thing (when Danica Patrick angrily confronted Hamlin on pit road after a 2015 qualifying race at Daytona). That was a serious moment when I saw her stomping toward me.I knew I was in it. I didn’t know if she was going to hit me, but I knew I was going to have to be willing to take it. She was coming. She had the brigade right there. I met her halfway between her car and mine. I just remember thinking, “Tense up. Tense up, just in case she swings.” (Laughs.)12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. The last driver was Justin Allgaier and he wanted to know: How do you criticize drivers honestly on your podcast without it coming back to hurt you on the track, and how do you stay honest while keeping NASCAR happy?It’s a really hard balance. Sometimes I’ll watch a broadcast and see the analysts trying to cover for someone, and I’m like, “This is where you need honest commentary.” You need to say, “No, you’re better than that. That’s not a mistake someone makes.” There’s so much covering because we all have to work with each other.I’m the same way on my podcast. I try to cut it pretty honestly. I’ll be the first person to criticize a Carson Hocevar move, but I’ll praise him the next week. It’s not because I’m negatively biased toward any one driver. Not (Joey) Logano, not Hocevar, not Brad (Keselowski), no one. I swear, I call it 100 percent honestly. And I’ll do the opposite when they deserve praise. I feel like I’m very, very fair in that sense.But it’s my opinion. That doesn’t mean you or whoever is listening has to share it. That’s what’s important in our sport: You have to call it fair. Even a fan of mine should be able to criticize me and say, “That was stupid.” (Recently) I was watching my qualifying lap from (the 2025 Brickyard 400), and I was like, “Holy s—. How did I manage to wreck a car that fast?” It was stupid. I was going for it.It’s a very tough balance. There are times I tread lightly. With the Kyle Busch stuff, I had to tread carefully for a while. It was like, “I know it’s not popular, but here’s what I honestly see.” Then the next week he can go run top five in what I think is a car that clearly isn’t capable of it and making something out of it.So it’s tough. You open yourself up to negativity from the fans of whoever you’re talking about. But being honest is the best thing for the sport. That’s what I try to be.With NASCAR, it’s the same way. I’ve told them: “You’re the league. You have to deal with it when I say you blew a call. You have to take that criticism.” Every league goes through it every Monday on SportsCenter or wherever: They blew this, they blew that. It might be 80-20 positive. But you have to be a big boy on the 20 percent.The next driver is Kyle Larson. Do you have a question I can ask him?If he were in my position, in his 40s, still winning races — because he says he isn’t going to race Cup that long — would he just keep going until he stopped winning? Or would he call a hard stop and say, “No, this is when I’m done”?He loves racing probably more than I do. So does that mean he’s just going to keep racing until he stops winning? Or is he willing to cut his career short just because Father Time says he should?