Day Ends Early for Denny Hamlin at Texas After Fiery Engine Detonation
Denny Hamlin, who came into Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on a prolific 21-race streak of finishing on the lead lap, will not extend his mark to 22-races. Barring a post-race disqualification, Hamlin will be credited with a last-place finish after his day ended after completing just 73 of the 267 laps.
Hamlin, who felt he was suffering an engine going sour, was told by his team to cycle the power in hopes that a reboot would correct the issues or at least help the team diagnose whether the issues could be resolved. Unfortunately, for Hamlin, that didn't do the trick, and heading into Turn 1 on Lap 74 of Sunday's race, his car went up in smoke, and then a massive fire broke out underneath the car.
The No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE would then spin in its own oil, but Hamlin would be able to keep the car out of the wall.
Here is the fire, and spin for Denny Hamlin after his engine detonated on Lap 74 of today's Wurth 400 at Texas. Hamlin is done for the day. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/FMszHJuzrF
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) May 4, 2025
After exiting the infield care center, Hamlin says he and his team are unsure, currently, what caused the engine failure, but that they should have an answer in a few weeks.
“It was blowing up for about a lap or so before it really detonated," Hamlin explained. "I tried to keep it off to keep it from full detonating, That way they can diagnose exactly what happened to it. It’s tough to say exactly what it is, but they’ll go back and look at it and we’ll find out in a few weeks.”
Prior to the misses that Hamlin felt in the engine in the lap prior to the engine failure, the driver of the No. 11 Toyota says he didn't have any previous signs of an issue forming throughout the race.
"...other than that, no. Nothing," Hamlin said.
The early exit from Sunday's race at Texas also marks the first DNF for the 44-year-old driver since a crash on Lap 60 of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway last August.
For Hamlin, Sunday's race had already been a headache.
On the opening pit sequence under caution on Lap 21, Hamlin's team mixed up their signals on the team radio. The team wanted Hamlin to pit with the rest of the field. However, the signals the driver of the No. 11 Toyota was given indicated to him to remain on the track.
A mix-up on the radio leads to early issues for the No. 11. pic.twitter.com/xVczDygZ3B
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 4, 2025
Hamlin would cycle to the race lead, but would be called to pit road on the following lap. As a result of pitting under a closed pit road, and a pit road speeding penalty for good measure, Hamlin would drop to the rear of the field for the ensuing restart.
Roughly 50 laps later, Hamlin would be done for the day.
Hamlin entered this weekend ranked third in the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship standings, and was 52 points behind point leader William Byron. Hamlin's ranking and point deficit will likely take a massive hit after the blown engine.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.