Hailie Deegan & Denny Hamlin Campaign for NASCAR to Break 64-Year-Old Daytona 500 Tradition

Ever since its inception, the NASCAR Cup Series has been running for nearly 75 years. In 1959, a new race was added to the beginning of the calendar, called the Daytona 500. Since then, this race has gone on to achieve legendary status and herald the start of the NASCAR season. However, it is worth mentioning that this race has had a reputation for being unpredictable.

In light of this, Hailie Deegan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin questioned its status as a season opener.

Hailee Deegan wants a track where it is in the driver’s favor

Deegan told Racer, “I kind of wish it started somewhere else like at Vegas or whatever so it is a little bit more in the driver’s favor and you have a little bit less luck on your side. But then again you have to be lucky in almost every race to have everything go your way. Daytona is the one race that you need to be extra lucky for, so I think starting off at Daytona, I’m going in with just a clear mindset.”

“I’ve talked with my crew chief Rich Lushes a lot and we’ve set our goals of what we want to do and what our plan will be, and I’m excited for it.”

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The Truck Series driver also spoke about her budding 2023 campaign, where she starts for a new team. Deegan acknowledged that the change was massive, especially since she is racing for a team that was switching manufacturers.

Previously, the ThorSport Racing team raced under the Toyota banner but switched to Ford earlier this year. As Deegan looked back on her previous season, she also admitted that there were plenty of ups and downs.

Denny Hamlin agreed with Deegan’s comments

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Coming back to Deegan’s take on Daytona, she had a supporter in the form of Denny Hamlin. He mentioned in his Actions Detrimental podcast, “That’s what’s interesting, right? Our biggest race is our first race. I like it and I don’t like it. I like it because it is big. It does build an audience that you can see, lingers for weeks after. So its good for TV in that sense. But to be the very first race? I’m not really sure. Does it need to be the very first race?”

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For the moment, everyone will just have to make do with the Daytona 500 being the season opener. Safe to say, NASCAR will most likely not break tradition any time soon.