As the dust settles on the Phoenix Raceway and last Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500, discussions and debates online suggest that Christopher Bell and JGR’s dominant display under the sun in Arizona has surprisingly been a dud. Jeff Gluck’s Twitter poll assessing fan reactions towards Phoenix showed that 59.8% of the viewers clicked on “No,” when asked, “Was Phoenix a good race?”

This race has been in conversations for quite a while now. The new and heavily tested, short-track “package” was on show for the first time at the 1-mile racetrack, originally not even classified as a short track. Many drivers and fans speculated that the alterations did not make much difference, with Bell’s teammates Martin Truex Jr and Denny Hamlin coming forward to voice their opinions. Nevertheless, the Phoenix Raceway announced in an official statement that the venue had been sold out yet again and this drew Denny Hamlin’s attention on the latest episode of Actions Detrimental.

Denny Hamlin offers perspective, comparing F1 and NASCAR

His co-host Jared Allen brought it up when he talked about Phoenix not having any “problem selling tickets to this race” and the fact that visibly NASCAR was doing “something right,” referring to the widespread fan speculation before the race even kicked off.

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To this, the #11 Toyota Camry XSE driver replied, “The promotion is great in Phoenix, I think it’s a great Sports town anyway.” Hamlin referred to Roger Penske’s IndyCar Series as well as F1’s premier viewership experience and the extensive “activations” that the latter provides when he said, “During the week, a lot of teams were giving Roger Penske you know gripe in IndyCar… and they said you know as soon as we get off an airplane to an F1 event, You instantly know there’s an F1 race there, the activation is everywhere. That’s the one thing I certainly noticed when I went to Las Vegas F1…”

Hamlin concluded, “Certainly, F1 has got everyone smashed in that for sure you know that they’re in town.”

“Now NASCAR, when you go to Phoenix, I see Billboards…” The 3-time Daytona 500 champion compared. “I mean my kids… I’m going down the 101 and there’s they’re like ‘Ooh Daddy’s car!’ It’s on a billboard and again, that’s very small. I mean certainly there could be more, you know Grassroots campaigning that ‘Hey we’re we’re in town’… But Phoenix I think does it as good or better than anyone. And which is why they’ve had six consecutive sellouts.” 

Ever since Phoenix took over as the venue for the season finale in 2020, crowds at the Raceway have regularly sold out. But the problem lies in the racing experience and Hamlin had his own observations.

Calls for Improved TV Coverage from FOX and NBC

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“What I would love to see from NASCAR media this week is: Let’s walk us through that last run for Christopher Bell. Show us where he gained those chunks of positions because the TV wasn’t on Christopher Bell until he got toward the front. So walk us through that and tell the story…” 

The viewership experience has been up for debate ever since the controversial Clash unofficially kicked off the 2024 season and Hamlin echoed widespread fan sentiment over the extensive ad breaks and selective camera coverage on FOX’s early season broadcasts. There were many mid-pack battles and Bell’s own resurgence from P13 to win his 7th Cup Series win was not on screens a lot, as front-row battles took up most of the TV time. Denny Hamlin seemed to concur.

“He gained a chunk here, a chunk there. Next thing you know he’s with only within 2 seconds of the leader in eighth place, now he’s catching cars with worse tires, he’s going to get around them pretty quickly. Like tell that story that’s kind of the production that I challenge the FOX’s and NBC’s and these guys to really do is tell the story of how compelling that last run was for the 20 car.” 

While FOX has done a commendable job at covering major moments like the 2024 Daytona 500 and Daniel Suarez’s 0.003-second Atlanta victory, the hangover from the back of back-to-back superspeedway thrillers seems to bear heavily on the NASCAR community. 

Regardless of the various opinions surrounding the Phoenix clash, it will be interesting to see how the narrative continues to take shape as we go further into the season, and with it, Denny Hamlin’s perspective.

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