Denny Hamlin sides with fans after Bristol: 'I know it wasn't good'

Denny Hamlin spent the better part of Sunday’s race at Bristol chasing Kyle Larson around the racetrack. Larson held him at bay to take the checkered flag in a dominating showing.

To many fans, the race lacked excitement. It was clear passing was difficult, and tire wear was non-existent. But in the immediate aftermath of the race, Hamlin wasn’t ready to criticize it too bad: “We shouldn’t throw mud on the racing because someone goes out there and dominates.”

Hamlin has since had a chance to watch the TV copy; his opinion has changed. Hamlin said on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast that the product on Sunday “wasn’t good,” and he would appreciate if NASCAR listened to his ideas for how to fix the Next Gen car.

“Fans are giving me sh*t because of my interview saying don’t throw mud on it because someone dominated. You got to realize, I’m in a cocoon for 500 laps. All I see is my experience,” Hamlin said. “Now, when I went back and watched the race, I hear you. I know it wasn’t good, and I feel your pain. We’re trying to do our best on this show to get someone in NASCAR to listen to us, to make some of these changes and I wish they would call me and say, ‘What would you do?’

“Because there’s about six things I think we could do to truly make it better, and it have no adverse side effects to it. But this is part of a bigger business plan for them that we’re not preface to, and we just don’t know.”

Denny Hamlin doesn’t think NASCAR tested Next Gen car enough

It’s now year four of the Next Gen car. While it has provided some really strong racing on intermediate tracks, it has routinely missed the mark on short tracks. Bristol, one of the more iconic tracks on the schedule, seems to be a shell of its past self.

NASCAR tested the Gen-7 car and deemed it ready for competition ahead of the 2022 season. But Hamlin says they didn’t do enough.

“They just didn’t do enough testing,” Hamlin said. “The car wasn’t ready. We had to delay it one year, we had the COVID thing — it was not thought out enough. … We didn’t have multiple racecars on the racetrack testing this car until two months before the very first race. And at that moment is when we all realized holy sh*t, you cannot pass. It was really, really bad.

“Now, we did some things. We were going to run 500 horsepower. That was the original plan is to run 500 horsepower in this thing. But it was so horrible that we got them talked into 670.”