Denny Hamlin never shies away from saying what he really thinks about NASCAR. A veteran driver in the garage and part-owner of 23XI Racing, the 44-year-old has an influence like few others in the sport.
Just last week on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin called out NASCAR for ignoring fans’ requests to increase horsepower in the Next Gen car. As a driver and a team owner, he had an interesting perspective on the topic.
“The issue seems to be red tape, obviously,” the No. 11 car driver said. “We’ve heard that NASCAR says, ‘Well, another manufacturer. They’re close. They’re close.’ Until that happens, I just think why not give the people what they want? And then if a new one comes in and says, ‘Hey, I can’t produce that. I need to produce lower.’ Then let’s taper it back to 650.”
He continued, “But until then, I don’t see the reason in sacrificing A, what the people want, B, it’s what the drivers want. And that will help the fan sentiment alone because the fans feed off of whatever the drivers say.”
On this week’s episode of Actions Detrimental, Hamlin once again brought up his issues with the Next Gen car, ripping NASCAR for not testing the car enough and emphasizing the inability to pass due to the build of the car.
Is it time to take a hard look at the Cup car’s impact on the racing? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/4Z7Ix7snbP
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) April 15, 2025
“They just didn’t do enough testing,” Hamlin said. “The car wasn’t ready. We had to delay it one year, we had the COVID thing — it was not thought out enough. We didn’t have multiple racecars on the racetrack testing this car until two months before the very first race. And at that moment is when we all realized holy sh*t, you cannot pass. It was really, really bad.”
Hamlin echoed many fans’ sentiments after yet another lackluster short-track race last weekend at Bristol. However, he thinks the car can be fixed if NASCAR works closely with teams and drivers.
“We can fix this car. The teams can fix this car,” he said. “We just got to get with the drivers, get in a room and figure out what do you fight? Why can’t you pass? And then come up with some remedies of how we can change this.”
Related: Denny Hamlin Fires Back at Kyle Larson’s Post-Race Diss
Related: Denny Hamlin Calls Out NASCAR’s Repeated Excuse for Ignoring Fans and Not Making Change
Read the full article here
