Denny Hamlin, who bowed out of the In-Season Tournament in its opening round at EchoPark Speedway following a massive pileup, has floated fresh ideas to spice up the format.
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He had earlier voiced concerns that starting the tournament at a superspeedway might not be ideal, warning that fan interest could dip if top-tier drivers get knocked out early, which is exactly what transpired at Atlanta.
Hamlin also suggested NASCAR refine its schedule to include tracks that truly deliver compelling on-track battles for viewers. He believes certain venues, such as Dover and Indianapolis, do not always showcase drivers at their peak when it comes to side-by-side racing and overtaking.
Now, Hamlin is pitching a new change to make the tournament more engaging. Ahead of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he said “paying for advancing (in each round)” could raise the involvement.
“I think you probably get more buy-in from drivers if they’re financially motivated to beat this one person. I know a lot of people kind of played it off this year, everyone knew about it. Everyone knew who they had to beat, everyone did care about it. That’s always a factor, but then you got to create a bigger pool of money there,” he explained.
While he felt this year’s tournament was rolled out fairly well, Hamlin still urged NASCAR to adjust the tracks and increase payouts for drivers as they progress through the rounds.
This weekend, Hamlin, already a four-time winner this season, will be chasing his first victory at Indianapolis to complete his set of NASCAR crown jewels. However, he will have to claw his way from the back of the grid in 39th after a crash during qualifying when his car snapped loose off Turn 2 and hit the inside wall.
A win from that deep a position would mark the lowest starting spot of any win in Hamlin’s Cup career. Meanwhile, the Brickyard 400 race will also feature his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs going head-to-head with Ty Dillon in the finale of the In-Season Tournament, with $1 million on the line.
