Denny Hamlin rips state of NASCAR after Daytona: 'Such a f***ing crapshoot now'

Denny Hamlin has a big problem with where NASCAR is heading after the wild ending of the Daytona 500. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin called out the state of NASCAR, saying that it’s all about luck when it comes to winning races.

“Over time, we’ve used to run 200 miles an hour at Superspeedways, and the cars were hard to really drive and handle,” Hamlin said. “Daytona 500 was a battle of the best driver and the best team that brought the best car that had a great setup under it. Some of the greats of our sport could navigate the traffic and use it to their advantage.

“That art is gone now, just like the art of passing on short tracks is gone now. Now we just knock each other out of the way and say, that’s just short-track racing. We’ve got to get this thing back. We don’t have to, I’ll be gone shortly and this can just continue down this road.”

Hamlin then talked about dealing with these issues as a co-owner of 23IX Racing. “I spend so much money at 23XI to ensure my team and my drivers have the best cars available to go out there and compete for a win,” he said. “But it’s just such a f***ing crapshoot now.”

More on Denny Hamlin and the Daytona 500

Hamlin, who has won the Daytona 500 three times in his career, finished 24th in “The Great American Race” on Sunday. He was one lap away from at least finishing second, but a wreck during the final lap prevented that from happening.

When it was all said and done, William Byron won the Daytona 500. He also won the race last year, making him the fifth driver to win back-to-back Daytona 500s.

“I just feel like our team, we have a really good process,” Byron told reporters during his post-race press conference. “If you look at our results at the end of last year, I just feel like this team is really experienced and capable of overcoming adversity. The way we ended last year and the consistency and just — I never feel like we’re out of it.

“So it’s just — all week I felt like we were doing everything we needed to do to get to this point. The race didn’t go like that, so I was kind of steaming inside the helmet. But I think that our team is plenty capable of just putting races like this together, and we’re never out of it. That’s what I want our team to be like is experienced and tough, and I feel like there’s no race that we can’t kind of overcome adversity.”