Denny Hamlin weighs in on Joey Logano calling NASCAR fans spoiled

As the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season approaches, Denny Hamlin brought back his Actions Detrimental podcast this week, with the Busch Clash looming this weekend.

With NASCAR: Full Speed debuting as well on Netflix, there were plenty of things to speak about for Hamlin and company. However, he went back to a comment made by Joey Logano last season, where he called NASCAR fans spoiled.

“It got a little blip on the media radar for awhile there, and then people were talking about it on social media — Joey’s comments about our fans being, you know, a little too spoiled. I think it was taken a little bit out of context. It’s certainly not what he meant,” Hamlin stated. “He just meant that, our fans have a ton of access, compared to other sports, we have a ton of access. So where do you guys stand on that, because it is such a hard topic, and I think about it as well. It’s like, are we too accessible, and oversaturated, or do we need to go the other way, and be more?”

After some debate, Hamlin made some solid points in coming to the defense of Logano, harkening back to the access he received as a fan when he was a kid looking for autographs in Richmond, Virginia.

“I don’t think the drivers are saying no,” Hamlin added. “The reason, when I used to chase my favorite drivers when I was younger, when they came to Richmond, my mom had a list on, ‘Davey Allison’s going to be here, Bill Elliott’s going to be here, Dale Earnhardt’s going to be here,’ and she had an itinerary. I’m telling you, these lines were three hours long, at minimum. It just took forever. The fandom was amazing back then. But we would schedule out the entire day of, ‘We’re going to be able to hit four drivers today,’ right? But a lot of that was circled around, they weren’t just sitting around in a circle signing autographs.

“They were at — for Davey, they were at the gas station. Dale Earnhardt was at a dealership. So it’s the activation within the sponsor, and how do they activate the sponsorship that they actually have. That’s probably why you see less of driver appearances, because the sponsorships are pieced together.”

Perhaps the issue is tied into the sponsorship issue we’ve seen with NASCAR in the last decade or so. Denny Hamlin makes some good points, but it’s up to the powers that run the sport to adjust, and look to change it into the future.