Racing in NASCAR has undergone a big shift since its origin. When Bill France Sr founded NASCAR, he wouldn’t have envisioned it to reach the heights it has in current times. And two veterans of the Cup Series have been around for as long as one can remember. They would be the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Martin Truex Jr and Denny Hamlin.

Although the efforts have paid off for Truex, the championship winner in 2017, life hasn’t been that rewarding for Hamlin yet. Speaking in a post-qualifying media gathering at Richmond, Denny had given hints at the change in approach to racing with time, but MTJ had a rather contrasting opinion about that.

Martin Truex Jr said drivers have to adapt to changing times

Denny’s statements in the presser indicate that he has had to change his style of racing with a change in the winds. With aggression taking over the sport, more and more drivers have started taking the help of data and statistics from their teams to enhance their performances. Hamlin also referred to that to explain his increasing amount of incidents of aggressive passing in the races.

Martin Truex Jr believed that deciding how to race is a matter of personal choice and depends on a lot of factors that could change the outcome of a race. He said, “Yeah, I mean that’s, you know, that’s I guess taking it to an extreme.”

One of the topics that coincided in the discussion was the style of former driver and winner of 40 Cup Series races, Mark Martin. Truex Jr claimed that even Martin, one of the best drivers to have never won the championship, had to take the rough road at times.

“I think the way he raced side by side with people, I think I would say that I probably race the same way. You know, now we’re not gonna… we’ll just roll over and give up spots you know two hundred laps into the race because it’s so early. That has definitely changed, no question but you know I think Mark raced hard and was aggressive at times when he had to as well, which I think that works today still.”

The patient style of racing that Hamlin deliberated on could be detrimental in the modern Cup Series races. Over the course of the duration of the race, drivers like Kyle Busch or Ross Chastain are less likely to hold on to their position and wait for openings to capitalize.

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Denny Hamlin on the increasingly aggressive racing in NASCAR

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In a long conversation with the media correspondents at Richmond, Hamlin had to answer a variety of questions. On being asked about how a driver has been forced to become more selfish with time, and if that changed anything for him, he said, “I think it’s just different now. The cars are closer together. Passing is more difficult than it’s ever been.”

Reiterating the case of Mark Martin, he said, “Even Mark Martin would have to adjust his style in this type of car because the days of the gentleman letting the guys go and you will just go and get them later – it’s just a different game these days. I wish we could go back to those days, but that is not where we are at. You have to adapt to where you are at. You adapt or you die.”

Any regular follower of the sport will be aware of how much racing has changed. Taking the current season into account, Denny has been involved in mishaps with other drivers quite a lot. In fact, so much that he might just be the most ridiculed driver in the Cup Series. His incident with Kyle Larson has only damaged his reputation further, where he has yet again denied any wrongdoing.

“Certainly, I feel like over the last few years, I’ve decided to be more aggressive because I’ve got used up by aggressive, and it is hard to blame them at the time – especially in a race-winning situation… If you have one person willing to be aggressive and one person not, aggressive will win every time. It’s just the facts of it.”

Denny’s words might not go in sync with the NASCAR community who have felt that Hamlin has been unreasonable in his wrecks this season. What happened with Kyle Larson at Pocono last Sunday is an example of what Denny tried to convey. With Larson holding his position at Turn 1 when Denny Hamlin decided to hasten up things, he became the aggressor in the situation. Win certainly came Denny’s way.

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