“Can’t Race Like It Currently is!” Denny Hamlin Sends a Major Warning to Toyota Over Break Issue at Iowa

The NASCAR Cup garage is at Iowa this weekend for the Iowa Corn 350 and championship leader Denny Hamlin is really frustrated. His practice and qualifying runs were disastrous owing to car issues. He will start at P29 on Sunday, depriving him a good shot at winning the race and adding one more trophy to his 2026 regular season tally.

The car issue holding the Joe Gibbs Racing driver back is to do with the Toyota Camrys breaks. It has been one of the longstanding issues for the TRD teams in the Next-Gen era. After the qualifying, the veteran pointed out that his car won’t be good enough to race well without affix and his manufacturer teammates Chase Briscoe and Riley Herbst is having the same issue.

Yeah, I mean, I hope so. Certainly, can’t race like it currently is, for sure… Yeah, I don’t know what the rule is on brakes and safety and stuff like that, but us, the 19, and the 35, none of us had any brakes.

Denny Hamlin said after the race.

Denny Hamlin said there were brake issues every time the 11 hit the track

"Need both pedals on short tracks"

Not sure where they go from here tomorrow yet pic.twitter.com/HjcPS8ERsc

— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 8, 2026

Further talking about the point, Denny Hamlin admitted that it is hard to for him run deep in the corner with the current cars. The veteran pointed out that he was okay with the car in the first few laps, but once that moment passed the car became almost un-drivable in a race.

You can’t get into the corners deep, and you can’t race. Obviously, you’ve got to have both pedals on a short track. I mean, not ideal. I thought, you know, the first five laps when I went out, and everything was cool, everything was okay.

Denny Hamlin added.

The car had the balance and speed he was looking for before things went south for the No:11 team.  That shows with the right fix, they could find their way back up the pack and potentially finish the race inside the top-10 to keep the points advantage of main rival Tyler Reddick at P2.

I thought the car had decent speed in it. It had a good balance to it, certainly better than what we’ve been here in the past. But unfortunately, I just didn’t get more practice than that. It started fading from that point.

Denny Hamlin asserted.

Denny Hamlin is excited about the new NASCAR rule change

In the same day, the legendary racer also talked about the new rule changes introduced to the sport regarding caution breaks. He believes it is the right choice to stop having scheduled stage breaks soon after a caution. That’s the best way to have more green flag racing as the fans demanded.

Good. You guys have been hearing me say it for months now, that the cautions that happen right before stages are painful. For the viewer that has to sit through 30 to 40 minutes worth of caution to get a shootout, maybe one or two laps. So certainly, if you want more green flag racing, this is going to give you that.

Denny Hamlin said.

The comments from the veteran racer are on point and majority of the racing community, including his biggest haters would agree with him. The next step from NASCAR should be eliminating stage caution all together, making races more natural.

Also Read: “Best Way of Showing My Respect!” Ryan Blaney Honors Kyle Busch with Heartfelt Iowa Tribute