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Denny Hamlin Details Fire Coming Into Cockpit as Day Ends Early in Texas

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kyle Dalton | Last updated May 4, 2025 5:28 PM ET

Denny Hamlin has had a strong start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, recording a pair of wins through the first 10 races. Heading into Texas, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was confident, having won at the 1.5-mile track three times before – the last one in 2019.

But things didn’t get off to a good start for the No. 11 driver in the first stage when there was some confusion with his team on a pit stop for the race’s first caution.

“Yeah, just miscommunication,” Hamlin said. “Myself and the team, they gave me a code. It was way too close to another code and I thought it was to stay out and so we decided we had to come back in and put gas in it.”

“Didn't really matter anyway, I guess the way it all turned out. But yeah, just a miscommunication between the two of us.”

The 44-year-old referenced "the way it all turned out” because a few minutes later in the stage, the car had an engine failure, which resulted in a big fire, smoke filling up inside the cockpit and the car going for a slide.

.@dennyhamlin talks about fiery end to his race at Texas and the miscommunication he had with his team earlier in the stage. pic.twitter.com/pTHWiDlyQo
— Kyle Dalton (@kdsportswriter) May 4, 2025

After a visit to the infield care center, the JGR driver described what happened.

“Yeah, it just blew up,” Hamlin said. “Don't really know how, what or why and, it'll take a few weeks. But they'll kind of look at it and see what happened.”

He added that there was no warning, as is often the case when an engine fails, and then described how fire started coming into the cockpit.

“It was starting to come up there at the very end on the right front as I was getting out," he said. "But, nothing for a while.”

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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