Time and again Denny Hamlin has been open about his criticism of the Next Gen cars. He was vocal about the issues after both Richmond and Martinsville races this year, blasting Next Gen’s poor performances. After the Brickyard 400 once again highlighted those problems with multiple cautions hampering the race with hardly anybody able to pass their rivals in peace Hamlin brought up his warning to NASCAR.

The Gen-7 car, which was rolled out two years ago at the 2022 Daytona 500, is nowhere close to scraping racers’ good books. Although safety concerns have been somewhat alleviated and there has been parity among teams and drivers, it has led to problems when it comes to passing and maneuvering the car through traffic

Denny Hamlin digs up an ignored warning

The faults of the Next Gen car were glaringly visible on Sunday. NASCAR returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval after three years, and it was a hot mess. Passing problems prevailed and previous generations (Jimmie Johnson was in the house) struggled to perform on Indy’s giant, one-groove rectangular layout. And the fastest car did not matter – it all rested on strategy and track position. The top 11 drivers in the “Green Flag Speed” category of NASCAR’s Loop Data all finished 25th or worse. This was mainly because crashes caught up to them or the fuel-saving need kicked in.

Hence, Denny Hamlin barged into this pressing issue on the recent episode of ‘Actions Detrimental’. “If you would have asked me to pass anyone in that final stage, it was just not gonna happen. It’s just physics,” he said. However, Kyle Larson had the upper hand – besides his crew chief admitting to his IndyCar experience, other technical advantages also played out in his favor.

He harbored no fuel concerns and faced no traffic before him, as Hamlin pointed out, “It’s just that we’re in a weird spot where the leader has such an advantage on that track because he’s got the clean air. You can run so much faster when you have the clean air.” 

The other faster drivers faltered. John Hunter Nemechek recorded the fastest lap run, and yet he got wrecked during the first overtime, collecting Denny Hamlin as well. So Hamlin came out with his verdict. “We all know these Next Gen cars are terrible on drafting. They’re the worst cars in NASCAR in traffic.” 

Then Hamlin recalled his apocalyptic warning issued to a NASCAR executive when the car rolled out in 2022.“When we designed them, we designed a car that is worse than it’s ever been in traffic. I asked them three times – three times I asked John Probst before this car came out, ‘Are you sure it’s right? ‘Cause you haven’t put it around any other cars during the pre-season testing.'”

When Next Gen cars were rolled out, Hamlin had raised various concerns ranging from driver safety to performance. In July 2021, addressing the media, he said, “When it comes to the crash stuff, I’ve asked questions to different NASCAR people, executives, I can’t get a response.”

However, the NASCAR higher-up should have listened to NASCAR’s visionary Denny Hamlin earlier. By the time they did, it was too late to make amends. Hamlin continued the story in a chiding tone: “And then finally in December before they launched the car, they put it on track with another car, and they see that it’s, ‘Oh s**t, we got a problem.’ I’m like, ‘No kidding. You got two years to figure this out.’ God, it’s frustrating.”

The first caution during the Brickyard 400 came when Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were competing for a top-five finish and Busch’s car crashed with less than three scheduled laps to go. The second caution came after the restart after an incident that took out five cars, including Denny Hamlin’s.

This also isn’t the first time Hamlin has labeled the Next Gen cars as the “worst.” After his second Cup Series win of the season at Richmond, Hamlin was furious over how the race panned out. On his podcast back in April, he said, “These cars are horrendous. They’re the worst car by far in traffic than what we’ve ever had. We have tires are that pretty damn hard.”

Hamlin was not happy with the sub-par performance of the Next Gen cars on the 0.75-mile short oval. Then again after the race in Martinsville, he brought up the struggle when it comes to passing. He said, “You created a next-gen of drivers that all drive the same, because its clear the optimum way to drive it. So how are you going to create passing? You will not!” while talking on his podcast.

All of this goes way back to 2021 when Hamlin first tried to warn John Probst, the senior VP of racing development, to no avail. That memory must hurt the Joe Gibbs Racing driver even more, considering his ardent ambitions in Indianapolis.

Hamlin’s wait for a first win at Brickyard 400 goes on

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Denny Hamlin was slated for a top-five finish at the Brickyard 400 race. But the final lap muddled things up. John Hunter Nemechek turned down across Daniel Hemric’s bumper, hit the wall, and came back across the field into turn 1. This spun off a massive wreck that collected Denny Hamlin as well. All of their cars were battered to a herd. This stung Hamlin considerably.

He has never fetched a Brickyard crown jewel victory. The JGR driver has been close though – tallying eight top 10s and three top 5s. Additionally, betting brands projected him as the 2024 Brickyard 400 winner.

Before the race flagged off, Hamlin voiced his fervent desire to grab the checkered flag on the hallowed grounds of  Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “I want to win it bad. I also know that I need to control what I can control, do my job on the racetrack, off the racetrack. This is gonna be a race that can be frustrating. You can have a very, very fast car and if you put that fast car in 10th place, it’s gonna be tough. It’ll be tough to come back from that.”

However, Denny Hamlin’s opportunity to flaunt a Brickyard 400 on his resume just got pushed back a year. Let’s hope that the JGR driver may bounce back with a resurgent victory next year.