Denny Hamlin is one of NASCAR’s biggest headaches. The 23XI Racing co-owner constantly derides the promotion for the countless issues with the Next Gen car and the questionable decisions it makes on and off the track. So, when a clutch failure forced him to a DNF at Kansas on Sunday, officials must have taken a deep breath, ready to face his criticisms.
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But what they would not have anticipated is for him to have the support of another powerful driver. Dirty Mo Media announced on X that Hamlin will be joined by the two-time Cup Series champion, Kyle Busch, in the upcoming episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast. This could turn really bad for NASCAR. And fans want it too.
One follower wanted them to “expose how trashy the Next Gen car is.” Another added below the post, “Hopefully they don’t back down and expose how trash the Next Gen is.” Even with the initial stages of the clutch issue, Hamlin had been able to maintain a position in the top-10. His biggest issues were on the restarts and getting in and out of the pit road.
Tomorrow.
Kyle Busch. 8⃣
Actions Detrimental. ️That’s it, that’s the tweet. pic.twitter.com/KfpRdz5bcY
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) May 11, 2025
Finally, when his crew chief asked him about how he was going to pit, Hamlin knew that he was done for the day. But he wanted to show everyone how fast his car was before calling it a day. And so, he raced to fourth before another caution fell. The gears of his car gave up when he went to the pits and tried getting back to the track.
Busch did not have a very green day with the Next Gen car either. He was particularly frustrated with his inability to pass the lapped car of Bubba Wallace in Stage 2. He yelled on his radio, “Un-[expletive] believable! These cars suck so bad. Thank you, NASCAR.” He further delivered some scathing words to the promotion and his competitors throughout the race.
The combined frustration of these two drivers is not going to be healthy for the promotion. One fan wrote, “This might make someone in NASCAR management very angry. I like that. I like that idea a LOT!” One more said, “Oooo this one’s about to be spicy and I’m all for it!”
If one didn’t know better, they’d believe that Hamlin was creating issues out of nowhere to find content for his podcast. A fan doubted the same with admiration and quipped, “Ya gotta love how Denny creates drama now at every race so he has content for the week.” Regardless of whether that’s true or not, expect some explosive fireworks on this week’s episode of Actions Detrimental.
