Denny Hamlin has been in the spotlight for the past few weeks: earlier for his two consecutive victories at Martinsville and Darlington, and now for his runner-up position at Bristol. Riding on a hot streak and knowing Bristol like the back of his hand, folks had high hopes for Hamlin and wanted to see him set a new record.
However, Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports reigned at Bristol with a 411-lap lead and kept Hamlin from winning by a difference of 2.250 seconds. After the race though, Hamlin had nothing but praise for Larson. He even gave due credit to his team for an exceptional performance while acknowledging his shortcomings.
In his statement, Hamlin even defended NASCAR against the fans’ backlash for its NextGen car. But on his podcast, ‘Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin’, he gave a different take on the matter once he re-watched the race from a different perspective.
Denny Hamlin’s Take on The Bristol Race on his Podcast
Among other factors of the race, Hamlin acknowledged the baffling tire situation at Bristol on his podcast. He admitted that conditions changed drastically as opposed to the qualifier race. Many racers, including himself, were being a little extra cautious till they hit the 60-lap mark. Once he learned that he could cruise with the same set of tires for longer, he went all in.
Hamlin said that his contemporary, Larson, was a tad better at reading the tire situation at the track and thus took a risk that paid off big time. But after the race, even Larson revealed that if Hamlin had the lead, he would have had a tough time taking a pass at him.
Speaking about the overall race, Hamlin’s co-host, Jared Allen, said: “I still don’t think this was a great Bristol race but that makes me feel a little better about it.”
Following this, the JGR racer addressed the shots that fans fired at him for defending Larson’s performance in his post-race interview. To justify his stance, Hamlin said:
“You got to realize fans, all I see is, what’s in my, I’m in a cocoon for those 500 laps. All I know is my experience.”
However, when Larson sat and watched the race again, he realized why many fans were disappointed with the race.
“Now when I went back and watched the race, I hear you. I get what you’re saying. I hear you. I know it wasn’t good. I feel your pain, I do. We’re trying to do our best on this show to get someone in NASCAR to listen to us.”
The 23XI co-owner further said that if NASCAR were to ask his advice, he has a couple of ideas that could help improve the current landscape of the NextGen car.
“I wish they would call me and say, ‘What would you do?’ Umm… because there’s about six things that I think we could do to truly make it better and it would have no adverse side effects.”
According to Hamlin, the teams and NASCAR management should come together and devise a solution to the problem to have any real shot at fixing it. Even if this meant some financial adversity, both sides must be willing to bear it.