Denny Hamlin Urges an Identity Crisis Stricken NASCAR to Make an Urgent U-Turn

NASCAR driver and team co-owner Denny Hamlin can always be expected to speak up his mind on anything related to racing. Recently, the 23XI owner stated that the NASCAR Xfinity series had far too many road courses on its schedule. He then went on to state how racing on ovals was far better and shared his opinion on which direction NASCAR should take not to walk away from their very own roots.

Hamlin stated, “Are they getting a bunch of really good knowledge for the Cup Series? I’m not really sure. The (Xfinity cars) don’t shift the same. They don’t brake the same. Again, the techniques which you use to be fast on road courses are the same, no matter what the car, but I’m really not sure that that’s where we should be headed.”

He proceeded to argue that the best form of racing only took place “on the ovals.”

He added, “I hate to say it, but that’s just kind of how it’s been: The good racing is on the ovals, and that’s what we are. We are not IMSA. Not many people tune in to watch IMSA races. So we have to be good at what we’re good at. And we’re good at short-track, big-track, contact-able racing.”

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“That’s who we are, and we don’t need to venture too far from what we are and what our roots are.”

Denny Hamlin’s comments on Bubba Wallace after he finished in second place at Kansas

Kansas seemed to be the perfect photo finish for the Joe Gibbs racing driver, Denny Hamlin. Well, he did not finish in the first position, but the guy ahead of him was Bubba Wallace of 23XI, the team Hamlin co-owns with Michael Jordan. However, Hamlin made his feelings clear that had there been more laps he wouldn’t have let Wallace win that easy.

Right after the race, Hamlin was quoted stating, “I nearly wrecked to catch him off of (Turn) 4. I got loose and hit the fence. I was driving as hard as I could. Nothing will ever come free when you are driving for me. If you think I’m going to let you win, you better get another job.”

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Had Hamlin won the race he would have directly been eligible to qualify for the round of 12. There’s more to consider regarding his competitive mentality – Hamlin was competing for both the owner’s and the driver’s championship. Whereas, Wallace was just there fielding the #45 car to push for the owner’s championship since he himself never was able to make it into the playoffs.