Denny Hamlin puts Cup Series field on notice with latest comments

Going into the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night, the 2025 season had not been kind to Trackhouse Racing.

Despite owning nine Cup Series wins since its debut season in 2021, Sunday's last to first performance from Ross Chastain was its biggest win by far at NASCAR's top level.

Chastain's response from a practice spin that forced him to start at the rear of the field was impressive and a huge step in the right direction after he failed to make the playoffs last season, two years removed from a Championship Four berth in 2022.

It was not just Chastain that showed some improvement in NASCAR's longest race. Road course ace Shane van Gisbergen finished 14th on Sunday, marking his best career oval finish in the Cup Series. Prior to that, he only had one top 10 (COTA) and six finishes outside the top 30 in points-paying races this season.

As encouraging as the organization's uptick in performance was at Charlotte, Chastain's ability to run down Denny Hamlin and William Byron, both of whom drive for powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, respectively, caught the attention of Hamlin, who was passed by Chastain for second with 26 laps to go and finished 16th after a fueling mishap on his final scheduled stop of the race.

Hamlin made it clear what his thoughts of the organization are on his "Actions Detrimental" podcast. 

"We need to give credit to Trackhouse this weekend, Hamlin said, per Essentially Sports. "We've been pretty hard on them, their lack of speed, lack of everything to start the year. But they absolutely showed up. It wasn't just him (Chastain), it was Shane (van Gisbergen) as well. Shane has run 30th in most races, and he got a great finish in 14th."

Hamlin is not wrong in his assessment of the organization. Coming into Charlotte, Chastain had seven top 10s while Daniel Suarez and van Gisbergen had four combined. 

Byron (283) and Hamlin (53) combined to lead 336 of the 400 laps, but Chastain got around both of them in the closing laps, making a statement against the top teams in the sport.

Did Trackhouse Racing hit on the right setup or is the organization's improved performance a sign of things to come? Hamlin believes the latter could be the case heading to Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). 

Although Nashville is 1.33 miles compared to 1.5-mile Charlotte, cars will still reach fairly high speeds, which could provide a better indication of where Trackhouse stands.

"You could use Nashville as another kind of baseline to it, Hamlin said. "While it's not as fast as Charlotte, the setups will have similar characteristics to it. You could say, is it just a Charlotte thing or a car speed thing that they found? We'll know that this weekend."

Considering the length of each track is similar, it would not be that surprising to see Trackhouse build off its Charlotte performance. After that, the series will get into a more diverse set of tracks, which will really determine how far the organization has come as it looks to return to the front on a weekly basis.