NASCAR seems to be learning quickly from the Talladega race, as superspeedway racing, despite the changes introduced, turned out to be largely a fuel-saving event with a lack of overall racing action. However, the authorities are now trying to implement changes to the future races, and Denny Hamlin, who has been quite vocal about the issue, is also working with the officials.

Denny Hamlin helping to improve NASCAR?

“Denny did say that he wants to help be a leader in this particular area,” revealed Mike Forde while speaking on the Hauler Talk podcast. Hamlin has been around in the sport for a long time, and having raced across multiple generations of cars, he can feel what the major issue with the Gen 7 car is.

Speaking on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin had earlier claimed that removing the spoiler from this car would improve the overall racing by a lot because of the drag reduction. And as it seemed, he also let NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell know about the same. The latter got him in touch with John Probst, the executive VP.

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“So his [Hamlin’s] voice will be uh part of that conversation too,” Forde added. “I think he wants to front-burner it, to have changes with by Daytona in the in the end of August. So TBD on where those go.”

To restrict the drivers from using fuel-saving maneuvers during the race at Talladega, NASCAR flipped the structure. Stage 1 was the longest with a whopping 98 laps, and the remaining two were shortened. However, that was pretty much like a band-aid solution. The teams ended up switching their strategies, and for most of the first stage, there was a 7-car train leading the pack, and leading this was none other than Denny Hamlin.

“Please get some drag out of this car. It’s got hundreds of counts more than our Gen 6 car. We’re going to pull out of the line and make runs, and we won’t care about the fuel savings. I promise you that,” Hamlin said earlier on his podcast.

It has become quite apparent at this point that the issue is not with the track but with the car. NASCAR showcased much better levels of competitiveness on superspeedways in the older gen cars, and they’re now attempting to improve the racing after massive criticism from both fans and the drivers.

Why is NASCAR’s superspeedway racing such a huge issue?

To be fair, the NASCAR Cup Series only races on two ‘superspeedways.’ But it’s the gravity of the event that matters. The season-opening Daytona 500 is the most-awaited stock racing event of the year, and that is shortly followed by the 500-mile race at Talladega. Both of these events gather massive crowds, and the only thing the fans want to see is the racing action.

However, that has reduced significantly since 2022, when the Cup cars adopted the Next Gen cars. These cars are far more advanced than the Gen 6 cars, but they also pose an issue. While the latter generated most of the downforce from the spoilers, the current generation of cars also does it from the rear diffuser and other improved aerodynamic features. Overall, there is a lot more downforce in the current cars compared to the previous generation.

Interestingly, this is exactly what Denny Hamlin pointed out earlier. While having more downforce isn’t exactly bad, when that is paired with a restrictor plate on the engine and a flat-out track like the two superspeedways, the racing can become a little… boring. As it was observed during the recent race, the lead hardly changed, and drivers found it extremely hard to make any moves in the midfield, either. The only huge change came when Bubba Wallace’s crash triggered the ‘Big One.’

Meanwhile, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, which has been using the same generation of cars for closer to two decades now, showcased a much more exciting race. Leads swapped all the time, and it felt more like a race than just a pack of cars moving around the 2.6-mile track.

Apart from the racing experience, the overall viewership also begins to take a hit, in addition to the general review of the race from the fans. It is for this reason that NASCAR has been paying so much attention to improving the racing on tracks similar to these, and incorporating Denny Hamlin’s assistance now, the next race at Daytona would hopefully be a lot more exciting.