Denny Hamlin questions if NASCAR can learn from Atlanta to fix racing at Daytona, Talladega

Denny Hamlin spelled out his issues with the current on-track product at Daytona and Talladega during last week’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

Six days later, Hamlin competed in the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta, which has become a drafting track of its own over the last few years. The race was widely praised by fans, and even Hamlin himself. Hamlin said on Monday’s podcast that the harder tires Goodyear brought to Atlanta contributed to the racing that took place. Hamlin pondered if a similar tire change at Daytona and Talladega could help improve superspeedway racing.

“The tire we run at Atlanta is somewhere in the range of 20% harder than any tire we run on an intermediate track. So, it’s a very hard tire,” Hamlin said. “If Goodyear or NASCAR see that we start stringing out a little bit, maybe they add some grip to the tire to bunch us all back up and then we reset the clock. But with this tire being really hard, it doesn’t really wear out. But it still new tires you can tell that it plays a little bit of a factor.

“I’m wondering, though, is that something we can do at Daytona or Talladega to like — maybe we soften the tire or harden the tire, I’m not sure which one. There was a lot of discussion over the week of what do we do to fix the drafting tracks. I think from an entertainment standpoint, it probably can’t get a lot better. I acknowledge that, I’m just trying to make it to where there’s a balance there of entertainment and a balance of sport where the drivers that are the superstars can feel like they have a legit changing of the outcome based on decisions they make.”

Denny Hamlin pleased with racing at Atlanta

Sunday’s race was a thrill ride from start to finish and showed the kind of racing a drafting track can produce in 2025. For Hamlin, the same couldn’t be said about the Daytona 500.

“I feel like the Daytona 500 is a microcosm of the sport in general as to how we crown our champion now as well,” Hamlin said last week. “It started with the competition group a decade ago when we took away horsepower because we wanted to look good on TV, we wanted you to think they can pass, but not that they can actually pass. For me, it’s gotten to the place where the entertainment of it has far taken over the sport of it. And I don’t know how to reverse things.”

Hamlin clearly wants a happy medium between entertainment and sport. Whether that is possible at Daytona and Talladega in the Next Gen car is the question.

But at Atlanta, entertainment and sport blended quite well together.

“If you talked to most drivers they would say, ‘Man, this is how superspeedway racing used to be.’ … I think that we’re still probably a couple years away from the prime of what Atlanta could be. It’s still got a little bit maturity to go in the pavement,” Hamlin said. “But it’s getting there pretty quickly, and we’ve seen fantastic races there over the last few years. So, a great show for the fans. I thought it put on a good race from my standpoint.”