Denny Hamlin On Crew Chief Swap Report: ‘Mike Ford Is My Guy’

A slow start for two of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sprint Cup teams this season led to Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and their teams taking a turn in the rumor mill on Wednesday.

But as it turned out, the report Hamlin and Logano would be swapping crews and crew chiefs was false.

The proposed swap was reported by the CaptainThunderRacing.com site, but was picked up by Jayski.com (which remains a well-read, influential NASCAR news site even in the Twitter era).

Anything posted on Jayski generates a reaction – even from Joe Gibbs himself.

“It was news to me,” Hamlin said Thursday. “The Coach called me as soon as he saw it, and I was like, ‘Maybe I should be part of this decision.’ He was like, ‘There is no decision.’”

Hamlin added crew chief Mike Ford would remain atop his pit box for the foreseeable future. The duo worked together to nearly win the Sprint Cup Series title last season.

“Mike’s my guy,” Hamlin said. “He’ll always be my guy.”

Hamlin and Ford need to get things turned in the right direction soon, though. Richmond, one of Hamlin’s best tracks, would be a good place to start.

And Hamlin can kick off the weekend on a positive note by winning his own charity race tonight.

“I consider this (charity) race as important as anything, because if I come out of here with a good finish, I’ve got great momentum going into tomorrow, and then hopefully it carries into Saturday,” Hamlin said. “We’ve got to have a weekend with no flaws. We can’t given up points to 10th place. ... We’ve got to start chipping away.”