Denny Hamlin Credits NASCAR Legend as Dale Earnhardt Jr Learns About the Driver-Goodyear Truce That His Era Did Not Have

Back in the day, Goodyear used to be the subject of a lot of torment from drivers whenever things went wrong. When bashing the tire maker, Tony Stewart was perhaps the most unfiltered of the lot. But times have changed, and Cup Series drivers have become a lot more civil than they used to be in the past, Denny Hamlin revealed that relationship on an episode of The Dale Jr Download podcast with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Junior used to be part of that garage of drivers who used to be a lot more brash than the drivers of today. If you think Hamlin talks a lot, you should really look at NASCAR during the late ’90s and early 2000s, things were wild, especially when it came to tires. If the 2024 Food City 500 took place during that time, half of the grid would be raging at Goodyear for the whole week.

Drivers somewhat got what they wanted, as per Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin credits the former Cup Series driver Jeff Burton for his vocal relationship with Goodyear, and it turns out that communication is key. The drivers knew that Goodyear was going to introduce tires that wore out faster, but perhaps not to that level. At the end of the race, some were satisfied and some weren’t, but the overall feeling was that things were okay and could be improved the next time NASCAR went to a short track.

“I think that we all try to get on the same page as much as we can. We have got Jeff Burton over there to try to kind of moderate that at times and kind of be our singular voice because you try to get us all in a room, everyone’s gonna have a different opinion. I thought overall the consensus is that this is what we asked for and it was okay. The one thing you never heard about this weekend was hey we needed more horsepower with this, or we couldn’t pass, or aerodynamics. Like that was a non-factor. If you wanted to drive to the front this week, you absolutely could,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said.

For Dale Earnhardt Jr, this did not come as a shock but as a relief. The 2-time Xfinity Series champion might have been part of a legendary era of drivers, but their attitude was not his cup of tea.

The one thing Dale Earnhardt Jr does not want this era to inherit from his

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That’s not to say they were not dedicated to the sport or that they did not have respect, all that was there in abundance. But those drivers were a lot more unfiltered, especially against Goodyear whenever things went wrong. Perhaps there was no clear chain of communication like there is today. Regardless, the former Cup Series racer is sure glad that things have changed.

“If you go back 15, 20 years, myself even included man, we would get out and we would hammer Goodyear. If our car did not drive right, if it didn’t feel good, I’d talk about having basketballs in Dover and hockey pucks at Bristol. Tony Stewart would get it and just hammer these guys, just brutal comments. So I was thinking, gosh I hope nobody does that,” he said earlier in the podcast.

A successful sport only works when all the moving parts work in harmony with one another, and publicly bashing one of them is not going to do anything good. The racing might have been better back in the day, but the sense of civility that has entered the sport in recent times has truly been a blessing in disguise.

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