With decades of experience at the highest level, Denny Hamlin knows that nothing in NASCAR will ever be perfect. The garage and fans will always have complaints about the schedule, the racing product, the cars, and many other things. This year, Steve O’Donnell took over as CEO of the sanctioning body at a time when its public image was at one of its lowest points, largely due to the antitrust trial involving Hamlin’s 23XI team. Six and a half months later, Hamlin recognizes that the way O’Donnell has handled things has brought a breath of fresh air to the garage.
Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Hamlin said he appreciates O’Donnell’s willingness to try new ideas and make changes when something does not work. He doesn’t wait for everything to be perfect, something which can otherwise lead to decision paralysis and ultimately halt the sport’s progress.
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“We’re not going to like every format change, stage length, aerodynamic package. None of it is ever going to be perfect,” Hamlin said in the interview. “So you’re always going to have to deal with a lot. Drivers are always going to have gripes about this, that, or the other, but generally, is it better? Right? I think that’s what O’Donnell has done.”
O’Donnell has introduced a plethora of changes since becoming the first non-France family member to serve as CEO in the sport’s 78-year history. The return of the Chase system and the scrapping of the elimination-style playoff format were welcome changes for starters. He has also begun reversing previously unpopular decisions, such as increasing the horsepower to 750 for all road courses and ovals less than 1.5 miles in length.
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Not every decision has worked out perfectly, however. O’Donnell and NASCAR introduced a new superspeedway package this season, which made its debut at Daytona just before the start of the Chase. It divided the garage, with a number of drivers feeling that the changes had made little difference and that NASCAR’s aim of producing better racing was not really visible on the track.
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But that’s what Hamlin was getting at. O’Donnell tried to address the concerns, and that matters more than doing nothing at all, which had allowed the sport to stagnate. O’Donnell even acknowledged that the new package was not a hit and admitted that there would be tweaks heading into the next superspeedway race at Talladega in October.
Another example of O’Donnell actively listening to feedback and working to improve the racing product came at Iowa, one week after the Brickyard 400, where fans had complained about cautions coming out before the end of each stage and the frustratingly long periods of downtime that followed.
O’Donnell responded by changing the stage-break procedure. If a caution occurs with 10 or fewer laps remaining in Stage 1 or Stage 2, the stage now ends immediately when the caution comes out. This eliminates the need to go back to green for a single-lap dash before another caution brings out the planned stage break. Fans were surprised that it took NASCAR so long to fix something that drivers and the community complained about for ages. Hamlin, even back then, came to O’Donnell’s defense.
“It’s hard to think of everything. I mean, every rule change that you implement, it’s like you never know what the cause and effect is,” the No. 11 driver said on his Actions Detrimental podcast.
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O’Donnell himself admitted that he wasn’t sure if the changes would be ‘perfect’. But he was willing to try out a fix, which is what Hamlin and many others, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., appreciated.
NASCAR still has a long way to go to fix everything. Race timings, selecting the right tracks for the Chase, and the unpopular Next-Gen cars are just some of the issues O’Donnell will have to address in the coming months and years.
He admitted on Kevin Harvick’s podcast earlier this week that, in the past, his predecessors made some decisions with only the short-term goal in mind. That’s not something he plans on doing. And that’s what has made him a reliable leader, according to Hamlin.
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The post “None of It Is Ever Going to Be Perfect”– Denny Hamlin Drops Blunt Admission on NASCAR CEO Overcoming Past Garage Stalemates appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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