Getty Denny Hamlin waves to Atlanta crowd.
Denny Hamlin launched his “Actions Detrimental” podcast in 2023 and made headlines for comments made on the show multiple times during that first year, including earning a retroactive penalty from NASCAR after his remarks on wrecking Ross Chastain at the first Phoenix race. Interestingly, he also willingly put on the black hat and embraced his role as NASCAR’s villain last year.
With the 2024 season officially underway, the podcast host has come out of the gate firing on all cylinders, calling out NASCAR CEO Jim France during the February 20 episode for declining an invite to meet with the team owners in Daytona. A week later the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was at it again on the February 27 show, calling out various entities, including his former teammate Kyle Busch.
“I talked to him during the drivers’ meeting before the Cup race this morning. He was certain that there was a bigger crowd for the Truck race than the Xfinity race and he was certain that it was because he was in the race,” Hamlin said before laughing. “I’m serious. No, I’m being serious. He said, ‘It had to be KFB.’ I say, ‘Oh, that’s cool, it’s third person.'”
And Hamlin was just getting started.
Denny Hamlin Makes Bizarre Admission About Peeing During Race
Later in the podcast, Hamlin talked about an awkward subject some drivers have addressed in the past — peeing in their firesuit during the race. The 43-year-old candidly admitted that throughout his career he’s never been able to get to that point, relax, and do it. At Atlanta, he couldn’t hold it in.
“As soon as I got the first dribble, boom!” Hamlin described.
“There’s no stopping after that,” podcast co-host Jared Allen suggested.
Denny was hoping for another yellow… and he got one! 😂🚹
“No. No way,” he agreed. “It was warm and then it was cold. I never felt what it felt like to pee in my seat but I kind of liked it. Is that weird?”
After several minutes of talking about his experience, including how he told the interior specialist on the No. 11 car that he left him “something special,” Hamlin unexpectedly brought up others who have done it.
“I know many drivers do this on a regular basis and I never understood how they could do it because I’ve tried and my body says no way I’m releasing right now,” he said. “Evidently, Carl Edwards used to do it every week. I think Tyler Reddick does it every week.”
Hamlin Takes Aim at Snitches
After calling out his former teammate and one of the drivers on his 23XI Racing team, Hamlin still wasn’t done. Later in the show he discussed Joey Logano and the penalty NASCAR gave the Team Penske driver for using an unapproved webbed glove during qualifying. The question was then posed whether NASCAR officials discovered the modified piece of equipment through their own resources or by what they saw on the broadcast.
“Oh, I’m willing to say it was a whistleblower,” Hamlin revealed. “These teams tell on each other, for sure. Those of you who don’t know. They call this a self-policing sport because we’re sitting next to each other, we’re watching videos of other cars. The NASCAR Cup Series is full of snitches. I mean all over the place.
“They tattle tell. If they see something that someone is doing that is illegal or skirting the rules, they’ll tell the tower right away. They’ll send that to (Chief Racing Development Officer) John Probst or they’ll send it to (Vice President of Competition) Elton Sawyer and be like, ‘Hey look, look, look. Look at that.’ And then they’ll say, ‘Oh, we’ll look into that.'”
Hamlin knows firsthand how well self-policing works. He found out at Pocono in 2022 when both he and Busch were disqualified.