Denny Hamlin makes passionate plea to NASCAR over tires after Bristol

Coming off this past Sunday’s race at Bristol, which lacked excitement throughout the field and drivers struggled to pass, Denny Hamlin believes it’s time for NASCAR to make a change. Speaking on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Hamlin called for NASCAR to discontinue making parity a priority and allow more horsepower to spread out the field.

“Clint Bowyer made a great point that the engine used to wear out the tires back in the day, but we went down this road,” Hamlin said. “This was a directive from NASCAR control that we want to reduce horsepower. We want to tighten the field. We want it to look like you can pass, not necessarily pass. We just want it to look good on the TV screen. That direction has put us in this box now where we all are the same and no one can pass a soul. It’s up to them if they want to fix it or not to do something or not.

“From the fan sentiment that I’m seeing, it’s not good and I worry about that. While I benefit because I believe I’m one of the groups that every week has a really good chance of winning, I’d rather see the long-term sport do better and us not continue down this road of making parity our biggest accomplishment because parity is not good for racing.”

Denny Hamlin discusses tire problem at Bristol

As far back as 2015, NASCAR has incrementally decreased the horsepower of engines capable of producing over 900. Except for high-banked drafting tracks, NASCAR caps engines at 650 horsepower. Passing it difficult as most of the cars run identical lap times, as they did at Bristol.

Compounding the problem is the lack of tire fall-off. During Saturday’s practice and qualifying session, teams reported issues with tires after about 40 laps. The expectation was that Sunday’s race would be a tire management race. Then came Stage 1 — Kyle Larson ran the full 125 laps on one set and dusted the field. Turns out, the warmer temperatures on Sunday made a difference.

The Cup Series returns to Bristol in September. It will surely be warm and unless Goodyear introduces a new softer tire, Hamlin expects it to be more of the same.

“Should we rest this all on Goodyear to fix this? No, but we’ve [NASCAR and the drivers] really put a lot on their hands to please help us fix this,” Hamlin said. “They won’t change the car, they won’t give us any horsepower, so Goodyear, please help us fix this. And they have on other short tracks but this one [Bristol], it really needs work.

“When we go back in the summer, we know it’s going to be hot. Let’s just go there with a softer tire or a different tire than what we have. Otherwise, you will not see anything different when we go back. If you change nothing, it’s going to be the exact same.”