Denny Hamlin makes a dramatic U-turn after facing heat from NASCAR fans
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin turned back on his post-race comments made after the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday. In the latest episode of his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin admitted that the 500-lap race was boring once he rewatched it at home.
After Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions, there was chatter among NASCAR experts that Sunday's race would be dominated by tire management because of the high degradation.
However, the degradation was almost nonexistent during the race, and Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson went on to dominate, leading 411 of 500 laps on his way to victory lane, followed by Hamlin, who was 2.250 seconds behind.
After the race, fans seemed disappointed with the lack of on-track action (only four lead changes in 500 laps). However, in his post-race interview, Denny Hamlin urged fans not to throw mud on the racing just because someone dominated. He made a U-turn on his comments after co-host Jared Allen called the race 'awful' during their conversation. Hamlin said:
"You got to realize, fans ... I am in a cocoon for those 500 laps. All I know is my experience. Now, when I went back and watched the race, I hear you, I get what you're saying. ... I know (the race) wasn't good, and I feel your pain. We're trying to do our best on this show to get someone in NASCAR to listen to us to make some of these changes. (43:55 onwards)
"And I wish they would call me and say, 'What would you do?' Because there's about six things that I think we could do to truly make it better, and it have no adverse side effects to it. But you know, this is part of a bigger business plan for them that we we're not prefaced to, and we just don't know," he added.
The second-placed result at Bristol has gotten Hamlin closer to the championship leader, William Byron. Hamlin has 316 points, only 30 behind the #24 driver.
"That's not fair" Denny Hamlin doesn't want teams to bear the burden of NASCAR's failure
Denny Hamlin has always been one to speak his mind, regardless of what people might think of his opinions. That's why he has had such a love-hate relationship with the fans of the sport.
During his previous response, Hamlin hinted that he would bring about six changes that would take the sport in a better direction. He was asked if any of those changes would end up burdening teams financially to dig the sport out of the situation fans seemed to be unhappy with.
Hamlin explained that it would be unfair to put all the financial burden on the teams. However, he acknowledged that at some point, something needs to be done to improve NASCAR as a product for the masses.
"Yes and no," Hamlin remarked. "Do the teams deserve to have the financial burden from the mistakes that NASCAR made on the car?
"No, we don't deserve it, but I think at some point we all got to come together and say how can we all pitch in to make this better, NASCAR included. So I don't think it all should fall on the teams; that's not fair, but I don't know what else you do." (45:05 onwards)
Denny Hamlin will return to Cup Racing after the Easter break on Sunday, April 27, in the Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. The race is scheduled to start at 3 pm ET.