In the last few years, NASCAR has tried stretching its arms and the track limits into other areas, places, and formats, in order to experiment with something new, to find a newer audience, to push the envelope of what the sport is beyond its traditional values. However, some people aren’t exactly a fan of this run of experiments. One of those people is Denny Hamlin.
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The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has time and time again emphasized the importance of NASCAR staying true to its roots, to its core values, and to what makes it unique instead of following what others are doing or what’s considered trendy. Hamlin’s vocalness about this subject was once again on full display when he answered a fan’s question recently.
Denny Hamlin urges fan to put a stop to ideas of NASCAR copying other sports
During a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, a fan asked Hamlin whether he would like to be a part of a NASCAR race with a time limit. “Time limit? I would say no,” Hamlin replied. “We’re not IMSA.”
“Let’s stop copying other sports. I mean, even F1, I guess they have a time limit. They have a time limit, right? 67 laps or 2½ hours, whatever comes first. They usually give themselves some buffer time on that.”
The veteran driver then touched up on the fact that races in the Next Gen era are already taking longer considering the cars have gotten slower compared to the days of 900 horsepower, which isn’t all that bad as per Hamlin. But in that process, NASCAR is losing a key part of its entire package.
“We have no time for post-race interviews anymore. You don’t even hear … it’s victory lane, and, ‘See ya.’ I think it’s more important for us to have post-race than it is to probably, I mean, pre-race is important, but post-race is very important,” he described.
“It’s definitely something we’ve lost in the last few years.”
Hamlin slammed NASCAR last year for venturing too far away from the foundations
Last year when NASCAR announced the current year’s Xfinity schedule with 8 road courses, Denny Hamlin voiced his opinion on there being a little too many of those racetracks. Hamlin, who has never shied away from proclaiming his love for the ovals, pointed to the sport’s foundations that started on those racetracks.
“I think that NASCAR for many years, and what it was built on, was oval-track racing, short-track racing,” he said as per Charlotte Observer as he suggested “tapering off” some of the road course tracks on the schedule. “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.”
Hamlin urged NASCAR to be good at what they’re good at. And that is short-track, big-track racing which allows contact between the racecars.
