Denny Hamlin is about to jump into the broadcast booth again, and before he even gets there, he already has a message for NASCAR fans: stop obsessing over where announcers are sitting during races.
Hamlin confirmed on Actions Detrimental that he will join The CW’s coverage for Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The talk took on a different tone when criticism came up.
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“Guys, please. Stop caring about the thing that just doesn’t matter,” Hamlin said. “It does not change your viewing experience.”
The frustration has roots in fan talk. Fans have spent weeks arguing online about remote broadcasts, studio setups, and whether commentators should always be physically at the track. Hamlin thinks that the debate misses the point entirely.
“As long as they do a good job, who cares? Stop it,” he added.
Then he also explained why. According to Hamlin, even announcers sitting above the track still rely heavily on monitors and camera feeds during races. Calling a race is about reacting to what viewers can actually see on television, not just what is happening outside the booth window.
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“It’s like when they say, ‘Look here, we’re running three-wide,’ and you only see two cars,” Hamlin joked.
That style of his is exactly why The CW wanted him for this role. Hamlin will join Adam Alexander, Jamie McMurray, and Parker Kligerman for Saturday’s broadcast at Charlotte. He is the first driver in a six-race rotation featuring active Cup stars this summer, including Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace, AJ Allmendinger, and Connor Zilisch.
The network is betting that active drivers can explain modern NASCAR better than traditional analysts. The 45-year-old especially fits that mold because he already spends every Monday breaking down races on his Actions Detrimental podcast through Dirty Mo Media. And unlike most TV analysts, Hamlin is still living the weekly grind himself.
Charlotte and Denny Hamlin
Hamlin is not stepping into the booth as a retired racer recanting nostalgia. He’s going to Charlotte as one of the top speed drivers in NASCAR right now.
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He’s second in Cup Series points, behind only his own 23XI Racing driver, Tyler Reddick. Hamlin has also led a ridiculous 624 laps this season, far more than anyone else in the garage.
The wins are there, too. He grabbed a win at Las Vegas earlier this year, then backed it up by winning the $1 million All-Star Race at Dover last week. His season is currently in momentum, which will matter in Charlotte.
Since 2020, Denny Hamlin has had a 3.8 average finish there. More importantly, he has figured out NASCAR’s tricky Next Gen car on intermediate tracks better than others. His best Charlotte race was still during the 2022 Coca-Cola 600.
That race was more of a survival test with 18 cautions and multiple wrecks. Hamlin stayed clean, managed the late restarts perfectly, and won after a tense double-overtime finish. That experience matters because the Coca-Cola 600 is not a normal race. It starts in daylight and ends at night. Hamlin has always been elite at that part of racing.
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Oddsmakers already see him as one of the favorites this weekend. The funny twist is that his biggest threat could come from Reddick, the same driver he co-owns at 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan. So within one weekend, Hamlin will analyze racing from a broadcast booth, run a Cup organization, and then chase another major win himself.
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