Denny Hamlin surprised by lack of wrecks at Atlanta

Denny Hamlin couldn’t believe there weren’t more wrecks throughout the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway over the weekend.

While there still were a couple incidents throughout the afternoon, “The Big One” never struck in Georgia like it does at Daytona or Talladega. Considering the style of racing we saw on Sunday, that’s a testament to how great the drivers are in the NASCAR Cup Series, according to Hamlin.

“I couldn’t believe we didn’t wreck. Like, a front of the field wreck, you know, that took out 10 cars,” Hamlin said, with disbelief in his voice, via the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I’m telling you, I was in the middle of three-wide, on the outside of three-wide. I mean, the hats off to the drivers. These Cup Series drivers are so good. It’s amazing how much better they have gotten over the last 10 years. I mean, we’re running right on top of each other. There is no room for error. 

“You know, we do make mistakes, you know, quite often, and that’s, you know — most of the wrecks came from somebody making a mistake. You know, running into another, and somebody else gets caught in it. That stuff happens. It’s amazing we don’t do it more often. It’s amazing it’s not caution after caution after caution. We were racing all out. Everybody, in the start of the third stage, everybody was racing 100%. It was like, ‘Whoa,’ I mean, usually — I’ve seen this thing evolve over time, that you don’t really get that until like, it used to be you didn’t get that until 15 laps to go at the other speedways.

“Like, you could feel the intensity picking up. Everyone’s starting to push more. The gaps, between the side-to-side, start to shrink. But it was like that from 100 to go on. It was like — it was crazy. It was crazy. It’s just a testament really how good the spotters are. How good the drivers are. Just, you know — it’s amazing to watch.”

Alas, Hamlin certainly makes some valiant points with his commentary. The action throughout the afternoon was palpable, and each driver was doing their best to get to the front and win the second race of the season. It’s borderline miraculous they didn’t wreck much until the last few laps of the race. 

Regardless, the NASCAR Cup Series heading to COTA this coming weekend will be a nice change of pace, as the road course will bring a different style of racing than Daytona and Atlanta delivered. We’ll see if Denny Hamlin can get the job done with the green flag waves this weekend.