Denny Hamlin speaks on Cole Custer's controversial win at Chicago Street Course

Denny Hamlin watched along with many NASCAR fans as Cole Custer captured victory in the Xfinity Series’ foray into the Chicago Street Race.

It was a controversial one at that, as Custer was declared the winner after running just 25 laps, the race not even halfway finished. However, it’s a unique situation, as it’s not like the Xfinity Series could’ve just returned to the streets of Chicago on Monday.

Nevertheless, Hamlin felt for the Xfinity guys, as they put so much effort into preparing for the event to only run a short number of laps. He elaborated on his thoughts on the latest Actions Detrimental podcast.

“I just couldn’t believe all the rain that was going on,” explained Hamlin. “Xfinity guys, how many days that they spent there, for probably 30 total laps or something, between practice and the race. But you know, you had Cole Custer there, just kind of leading every lap. It was about to get interesting, because I think that fuel was about to be part of the story in that race, and then they had a lightning strike.

“It didn’t rain. It didn’t rain until much, much later. I had heard, I don’t know if it’s true or not, I had heard that the labor force, the Chicago labor force, once the first lightning strike happened, they left, and that’s when they (NASCAR) were like, ‘We’ve got no help,’ so they evacuated everyone. I don’t know if it was because of the lightning, or because they lost the labor force, but I’m really not sure.”

At least NASCAR was able to get the track cleared for some exciting Cup Series action featuring Denny Hamlin. Still, it has to sting for the Xfinity regulars who were relegated to a quick, uneventful day on Sunday.

Denny Hamlin ‘really’ looking forward to NASCAR Chicago return next year

Continuing, Denny Hamlin can’t wait to return to Chicago following the success of the NASCAR Cup Series’ Grant Park 220 Chicago Street Race Sunday.

“I couldn’t believe how many people were there,” Hamlin said on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast Monday. “It’s pouring rain, there’s absolutely not a soul there for our intros. I mean, a hundred people I felt like were maybe there. All of a sudden we walk out to get in our cars and it’s like ‘Oh, it’s filling up here. They’re starting to file in. And at the end of the race, I get out of the car and the stands are full. I was like wow. People were committed. Definitely committed to going and that just tells you the enthusiasm at that whole place.” 

Hamlin, who started on the pole and picked up a P11 finish, added he viewed the event as a “huge success.”

“We were trying something new and I thought it was a huge success. I really look forward to having the opportunity to come back next year… It seemed like they [Chicago] were really excited to have us there. Definitely hope that we’re able to keep this going for the next two years.”

Success would be an understatement, as the Grant Park 220 pulled in record viewers on NBC and Peacock. The first-ever Cup Series city street race averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 4.795 million viewers, according to NBC Sports.

The Grant Park 220 was the most-watched Cup Series race on NBC in six years (Indianapolis in 2017), as well as the network’s most-streamed NASCAR race ever. Viewership peaked at 5.383 million TV-only viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET when Shane van Gisbergen took the checkered flag to notch his first victory in his Cup Series debut.

On3’s Nick Geddes contributed to this article.