NASCAR communications director calls out Denny Hamlin post-Daytona comment

Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communication, did not agree with Denny Hamlin‘s comments about the Daytona 500. On the Hauler Talk podcast, Forde reacted to Hamlin saying that winning the Daytona 500 and other Superspeedway races is based on luck.

“William Byron was not lucky,” Forde said. “He was prepared, he was talented and he had a really good car and he had the opportunity. He had the opportunity because he was running up front the entire race.”

Forde then revealed some of Byron’s loop data stats from the Daytona 500 to see if he was lucky. He said that Bryon had the fourth-best average running position, third-best driver rating and second-most laps in the top 15.

“He was not lucky in that race,” Forde added. “He did not win that race because he chose the outside line and just happened to not get in that wreck. He was running up front, put himself in a position. Did he get lucky that he wasn’t caught up? Sure. Winning that race wasn’t luck, at least not 100 percent. …I really feel like William Byron won that race because of preparation, skill and yes a little bit of luck.”

What Denny Hamlin said about Superspeedway racing

Mike Forde was responding to what Hamlin said about Superspeedway racing on the Actions Detrimental podcast this week. “Times have changed and I find myself in this position where it’s like are we now gonna start viewing the Daytona 500 winners like we question our champions?” Hamlin said. “It’s just a bunch of questions now. Yeah, but. It’s always a yeah, but. And I hate that for the winners because this is their big moment to shine and it’s a big accomplishment. But I hate the fact of how much luck is involved in NASCAR now. I used to hate the word luck, and it was so overused in our sport for decades. Before the Next Gen came along, people would talk about oh luck, and they still do.

“NASCAR media overuses the word luck so much, they always have. And it’s like no, you gotta put yourself in the position to not capitalize on others misfortunes — that’s luck, like you needed them to have misfortune for you to win — that is luck. “But it’s making the moves at the end of the race to win, and it’s that wow, that guy just did something that’s hard to do, it shows that he’s better than the rest of them. I feel like we’ve just lost that. It’s just a matter of wrecks at superspeedways.”

Hamlin was frustrated because he was in second place during the final lap of the Daytona 500. However, Hamlin finished 24th because he was involved in a wreck, leading to Byron winning “The Great American Race.”

Nick Geddes contributed to this story.