Denny Hamlin Claims NASCAR Decision Which Kevin Harvick Approved of Could Lead to Races With “Potential to Get Boring”

Before the start of this season, NASCAR introduced a few rule changes. One of them was the elimination of stage breaks from road course races. Now, we’ve had a couple of road course races so far this season, at COTA, and more recently at Sonoma with this new rule change in effect. But as per Denny Hamlin, this isn’t doing the appeal of the racing any good.

Hamlin, who started on the pole at Sonoma, had his day ruined after a wreck that brought a caution in a race that had one competition caution for strategy and tire reasons. He argued after the race that the no-stage breaks thing, while it’s good in theory, could lead to some boring races.

Denny Hamlin thinks no stage breaks at road courses could lead to boring races

In a recent episode of his podcast show, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin touched upon the effects of the no stage breaks on road course races. This was a rule which Kevin Harvick had highly approved of last year. And while Hamlin too claimed that he would rather have a shot at winning the race than getting stage points, he thinks it could lead to stale races.

“The way that we’re doing with no stage points now, it actually lets the race play out more naturally, and so you don’t have this flip-flopping. But the race has a potential to get boring. I mean, it does,” Hamlin said. “I know that (Kevin) Harvick was the one that really kind of advocated for this, no stage breaks, and I totally get the reason for it. It allows you to determine your own strategy, which, that’s why those guys flipped that caution on.”

“They played a different strategy than we did, and it paid off. I totally get that for sure. But you have a chance with no stage breaks of this thing, just going green, green, green,” he continued.

“Had that caution not come for that tire, we could’ve been … well, then you had my wreck, but there was not else much to it.”

Kevin Harvick had disapproved of stage breaks last year

Ahead of the race at Road America last season, Kevin Harvick had made his thoughts on stage breaks pretty clear. “In my opinion, there should be no stage breaks,” he said as per Speedway Digest.

The #4 driver claimed that stages should be rolling laps, and when they end, the stage should also end with drivers scoring points on that lap.

He insisted that stage breaks and the extra cautions at a track like Road America, a road course, “they just take away from the race,” which was an opinion which stands more or less opposite to that of Denny Hamlin.