“I don’t want our fans to lose sight that we have great racing at our superspeedways.” NASCAR’s senior VP of competition, Elton Sawyer, said these words after the Bristol race. Kyle Larson led 411 of 500 laps, and there were only 4 lead changes. This spelled a failure of Goodyear to put a band-aid on the Next-Gen car’s short track package. However, when the Cup Series headed to Talladega, the car faltered yet again. So, according to Denny Hamlin, Sawyer may be relying too much on just words.
After all, NASCAR is a 77-year-old sport with a core, diehard fan base. No matter what the leadership feeds them with regard to racing improvements, a large swathe of people would hold their original opinions. That is also why executives may be shooting themselves in the foot, as Denny Hamlin said.
Denny Hamlin calls out NASCAR’s verbal assurance
Every Tuesday, a group of NASCAR executives gathers for a discussion of competition issues. The ‘Hauler Talk’ podcast airs this discussion, mainly featuring Mike Forde and Amanda Ellis of the communications department. Sometimes, higher-ups like chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell and Elton Sawyer also arrive to offer fans an informal source of information. However, Sawyer’s comments after the Jack Link’s 500 race received severe criticism. At Talladega Superspeedway, William Byron dominated the race, yet after he lost the lead during a green flag cycle of pit stops, he could never regain it. Similarly, Denny Hamlin could not maneuver his car to overcome Ross Chastain’s massive block. So when Sawyer said, “I’m not real sure what we’re going to work on there,” the reception was not good.
NASCAR fans already bashed Elton Sawyer for being ignorant of the glaring Next-Gen car issues in Talladega. Denny Hamlin continued this criticism in an ‘Actions Detrimental’ episode, blaming Sawyer and other higher-ups’ delusional words for the fans’ decreasing interest. “When you had Elton going last week and talking about superspeedway racing, say, ‘I don’t understand what we have to fix. Look at the stats that we’ve got for this week. We had 67 lead changes…’ I think you lose some credibility with the fans. They have a low morale right now due to their lack of faith in the competition leadership.” Indeed, Jeff Gluck’s ‘Good Race Poll’ recorded 61% of voters disliking the Talladega race, and only 20% voted Yes to Bristol. Clearly, fan sentiment is at a new low.
TALLADEGA, AL – OCTOBER 14: Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford, and Clint Bowyer, driver of the #14 Cummins/Rush Truck Centers Ford, lead the field to the green flag to start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 14, 2018 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Denny Hamlin even came up with a suggestion for the NASCAR leadership. He called for a complete push-back of the ‘Hauler Talk’ podcast. “I think they should probably just cancel the whole coming on the radio…I know why NASCAR comes on every Tuesday morning to say, ‘Here’s why we did this’…I appreciate that transparency. But when you go in there and you kind of brush off what every driver said…for three years, podcasts have said we’ve got a superspeedway problem, kept ignoring it…I just think that NASCAR created its own stats to make itself look good…You’re just making something up to look better.”
Then Denny Hamlin emphasized that NASCAR may be taking fans too lightly. He continued, “The problem in my mind is that our race fans are smarter than that…The amount of casual fans watching us every week is 10%? Our fans are core, man, they’re smarter than you think they are. Certainly, they will listen to what the drivers say…When you discredit what your drivers are saying and what your core fans are saying, I think you lose some credibility with them.”
Clearly, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is not on board with NASCAR trying to downplay the overarching concerns with the sport. However, Denny Hamlin sanctioned the sport’s decision in another arena.
Showing the practical side of things
Well, Denny Hamlin and most of the sport’s veterans want to overhaul the short-track racing package. After two consecutive Bristol races that were dull due to the car’s lack of flexibility, drivers have clamored for change. And NASCAR came up with a possible solution. Given the history of the All-Star Race as a haven of experimentation, higher-ups proposed the ‘Run What You Bring’ policy. It would entail a relaxation of rules in racing at North Wilkesboro Speedway. According to Dale Earnhardt Jr, this could have shown teams ways to unlock solutions to the Next-Gen car’s flaws. Even Hamlin agreed: “Generally speaking…this would be fantastic. There could possibly be something that gets learned for the short track package that could make it better.” However, the JGR veteran revealed a glaring problem.
The Next-Gen car’s debut in 2022 largely entailed passing problems, but it also involved financial constraints. Each car costs about $300,000 at every racetrack, besides other expenses. Given the All-Star Race’s $1 million prize, Denny Hamlin did not think the experiment was worth it. “I’m going to spend a million dollars just in parts and pieces that we haven’t even developed anything (for) yet. So, just in parts and pieces to replace all this that we’re going to modify, we’re going to spend a ton of money, and it only pays 1 million to win. It’s paid $1 million to win for 30 years. For 30 years. It’s not that cool anymore. Like it, even if one of my cars won, I don’t see this as even remotely a break-even proposition.”
Denny Hamlin may agree with NASCAR regarding some executive decisions. However, the ever-persistent problems of the Next-Gen car and NASCAR’s unwillingness to solve them would keep pitting Hamlin against the executives.
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