Denny Hamlin says most NASCAR drivers don't 'have the balls' to be outspoken

Nobody would dare say Denny Hamlin isn’t outspoken, but the NASCAR veteran believes it’s time for other drivers to step up.

Evidently, Hamlin believes too many of the top talents in the sport have become vanilla. He called out his fellow drivers on his latest Actions Detrimental podcast, where Hamlin claimed the way they’re acting is “stunting growth” for the future of the sport.

“It drives me crazy no one else has got the balls to be,” Hamlin responded, asked if it’s easier being this outspoken as he is now, versus the way drivers at Hendrick Motorsports act. “Honest. It’s not the drivers fault. They’ve clearly got white collar standing over the back of them, making sure that they don’t do it. Like, that’s not good. That’s stunting growth. That’s stunting star power.

“I believe that we have stars in our sport, but they’ll never get seen, because you’ve got that mentality looking over their shoulders. Keep doing you, I’ll keep doing me.”

Alas, Hamlin certainly has a point. NASCAR used to be filled with a ton of personalities, from Dale Earnhardt to Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart to Jeff Gordon and many in-between. Now, sometimes you can feel like you’re watching a bunch of salesman race week-in and week-out.

Perhaps his fellow drivers will take Denny Hamlin’s advice. Hamlin’s been exciting throughout the change in his personality, but it remains to be seen if anyone else follows suit moving forward.

Denny Hamlin thinks NASCAR has ‘too many races’

Speaking of being outspoken, Denny Hamlin ranted a bit on the 2024 NASCAR schedule in the latest episode of his podcast. Evidently, he came to a realization that he thinks the schedule is too damn long. 

Following NASCAR seems like a full-time gig. Fans, media, and teams know it all too well. Media starts in January. Then the races start in February. The only break drivers get is pretty much half of November and then December, and Hamlin doesn’t necessarily love that.

“Well, it has become abundantly clear to me then, that we have too many f***ing races,” Hamlin said to his co-host Jared Allen. “We’re trying to fit this schedule into it’s gotta start here it’s gotta end there and we’re trying to jam 38 races into what should be 32 at the most. We’re never going backward because NASCAR makes way too much money per week, but it’s clear that we have these scheduling problems because we have just too many weeks. Way too many weeks.”

Hamlin went as far as to say the almost 40-week-long schedule has hurt his mental health as well. Although, it was unclear if he was being tongue-in-cheek in the moment. 

“The schedule it just, takes its toll on everyone, it’s taken a toll on my mental health, clearly. I am unwell when I look at this schedule. I haven’t even gotten to the fact that they’ve added another road course and another superspeedway to the playoffs.”

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.