Denny Hamlin Not a Fan of How Texas “Flip-Flopped” the Field to Give “Terrible” Cars a Chance

Denny Hamlin can be brutally honest at times and that side of his personality came out in all its glory in a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast. The Joe Gibbs Racing star is not a fan of the Texas Motor Speedway and if anything, Sunday’s race and its countless wrecks made that feeling even stronger. The 43-year-old implied that half of the drivers who finished inside the top 10 were helped out by these cautions but did not deserve to be there considering how they ran throughout the day.

Denny Hamlin gets brutally honest about top-10 finishers on Sunday

Hamlin had a good chance of winning the race at Texas but his attempt to pass Chase Elliott in overtime backfired as he spun out and ended up finishing quite low down the order, at P30. However, that was not one of his concerns on the podcast. The JGR star spoke about how several drivers who did not run well took advantage of the cautions and ended up finishing high up. The veteran understands that it is just part of racing but still was not a fan.

“You know, you look at the finishing results, there were some lucky people. There were some people that got lucky with that last caution. They went long, the caution came out, they got to pit and it flip-flopped the field. And the reason why it flip-flopped the field is Reddick got out to such a huge lead during that run and then I had such a big lead over third…when we pitted, we unlapped ourselves, the caution comes out, there was about six of us that were on the lead lap when the caution came out even though the cars hadn’t pitted. So then all those cars that were just desperate…if you look at half of the top 10, these were cars that were s**t all day, they were terrible,” he said.

However, that was not the only supposed issue that Hamlin pointed out. The Texas Motor Speedway is a track that has come under a lot of criticism from drivers and fans ever since it was repaved in 2017. Denny Hamlin is one of those critics as he spoke about one of the biggest errors NASCAR made in 2019.

NASCAR veteran outlines the problems with the Texas Motor Speedway

Trending

Tony Stewart’s Wife Leah Pruett Pens a Heartfelt Message for Husband After His Unwavering Support for His Family

“We Are Not Morning People”- Travel Woes Hit Home for Kyle Busch & Wife Samantha Leaving Son Brexton Grinning

Joe Gibbs Drops a Bombshell Without Warning, Leaves Denny Hamlin Shocked

“Godspeed Les” – NASCAR Loses Old School Pioneer Integral to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Late Model Venture

Denny Hamlin’s One Final FedEx Tribute Steals the NASCAR Awards Spotlight as He Uncovers Drivers ‘Disgruntled’ Emotions

Part of the repaving process in 2017 saw adjustments be made to turns 1 and 2 to reduce the banking but the issue that caused was that there was no grip. To deal with that, NASCAR laid the traction compound PJ1 in that area of the track in 2019. That seemingly proved to be a bad decision in the long run as cars seem to get loose on the top part of those turns. The compound still has not gone from the track and it caused issues for several drivers, including Denny Hamlin. Turns 3 and 4 also are a matter of concern due to the uneven track surface. That’s where he wrecked in the end.

“We saw if you ran in the high line, almost all the wrecks came from someone up in the high line, it’s just treacherous and it’s…they haven’t reapplied anything to that surface in years now and it’s still there. That’s crazy it hasn’t burned off. That tells you how much into the surface that stuff is. But like I said, there’s got to be some sort of asset or something that will eat away at that stuff to make it to where we can start to widen the track. That’s the only way that Texas is salvageable is if you just find something, maybe fix that big a** hole in turn 3 and 4 that we keep running over,” the Joe Gibbs Racing star added.

Judging from his comments, it seems like the 43-year-old believes that the track is in desperate need of a makeover. Do you think that will improve the quality of racing at the Texas Motor Speedway or is there no need to change anything at the moment? Let us know your thoughts.