Denny Hamlin doubles down on fiery rant, pressed on whether NASCAR called him to principal's office

Denny Hamlin is not one to hold his tongue. In the past, his mouth has maybe gotten him in trouble with NASCAR. So, what about Hamlin’s recent comments about the superspeedway package in the Cup Series?

In the last few years, the world of NASCAR podcasts has exploded. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, RFK Racing, and so many others have gotten into the podcast game. That has led to a lot of discussion in the sport.

When it comes to the superspeedway package for Daytona and Talladega, there is something to be desired. A little extra something that could truly make the racing spectacular on those tracks.

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports asked if Hamlin was approached by NASCAR regarding his comments this week. The driver says he hasn’t heard anything positive or negative about his podcast episode from the sanctioning body.

Instead, Hamlin talked about the issue at hand.

“I think if you ask the competitors they probably like one sort of thing and even that’s probably a varied answer,” Denny Hamlin explained. “And I think NASCAR probably likes another thing and TV maybe wants another thing. So, trying to balance that is going to be really, really tough. Ultimately, I think as a competitor myself, I mentioned it, that it’s, you would like to get rewarded. When you make the right moves like it’s very frustrating that it kind of is out of your hands most times at superspeedways and we’d like to put it more in our hands.”

Going to Atlanta this week, it is another drafting track. But not quite the same. Those same issues aren’t as apparent on the 1.5-mile track.

Denny Hamlin hopes Atlanta ends differently from Daytona

No one wants to end up in the infield care center. So, this week at Atlanta, Denny Hamlin is going to hope that he can end his day differently. In his qualifying session, Hamlin finished P37 out of 39 cars. Not a great result.

The good news for Hamlin is that this should work out in his favor. Atlanta is not a track where qualifying will matter much outside of scoring Stage 1 points. His qualifying time likely means his car is set up for race trim, anyway.

Hamlin qualified one spot below Ty Gibbs. That tells me that those JGR cars were not set up for qualifying. The best JGR car qualified P25 overall, Chase Briscoe. Let’s hope that extra speed compared to his teammates isn’t for any illegal modification.

The new Atlanta is difficult. Denny Hamlin and the other Cup Series drivers are going to be tested on this 1.5-mile superspeedway.