Did Denny Hamlin’s “Unfair Advantage” Take on Kyle Larson Lead to Tough NASCAR Decision?

One might say intuitively that for a Cup Series race on Sunday, if a driver takes part in the Xfinity or Truck Series a day before, he tends to have an advantage over the others. This is what Denny Hamlin recently expressed in his podcast, bringing up Kyle Larson’s performance in the 2023 All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro on the back of his Truck Race the same weekend. This “unfair advantage” conversation was certainly in the picture for the Chicago Street Race this weekend, where NASCAR takes to a street circuit for the very first time.

Turns out, NASCAR has already taken care of Hamlin’s concerns to a certain degree.

NASCAR Announcement in Light of Denny Hamlin’s Kyle Larson Take

Being the first Street Race in NASCAR, many feel that the race will be incident-filled, and the fact that a driver could spend more time on the track before the Cup Series race was certainly looked at as an advantage. But according to Bob Pockrass, this is no longer a concern.

Pockrass brought an end to all speculation, saying, “Drivers can’t run both the Xfinity race and the Cup race this weekend as NASCAR didn’t want driver(s) to have big advantage in experience on the track by running Xfinity (and creating a frenzy of drivers trying to find rides/build cars for that race).”

Why did NASCAR do this for Chicago and not for Sonoma?

As with all decisions, this divided the fans too. When a fan asked how this step was not hypocrisy on NASCAR’s part when they did not do the same for Sonoma, Pockrass gave a rational explanation. The Fox Sports journalist replied, “Cup drivers have experience at Sonoma so advantage there is minimal, if at all. … The advantage of doing the Chicago course where there has been no testing would have been more likely. And again, they didn’t want to create free-for-all spend at the cost of Xfinity drivers.”

Seems fair. The announcement also showcases that like Denny Hamlin, NASCAR also thinks that there is an advantage when it comes to driving on new tracks, something that it has tried to address with this decision.