NASCAR ace Denny Hamlin isn’t buying NASCAR’s latest explanation for the playoff format. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver called out what he sees as a corporate talking point, saying fans are tired of being told the championship is about performing “when the lights are brightest.”
The debate started after NASCAR’s “Chief Hype Officer” Dylan “Mamba” Smith said the playoffs aren’t necessarily designed to crown the best driver all season, but the best driver-team that executes under pressure.
On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin fired back, saying luck plays too big a role in the sport for that to be true.
Hamlin went on to cite Corey Heim from the Truck Series. Heim has already won seven times this season, which shows his level of dominance. Hamlin suggested that he could win 10 races, but still not win the championship, simply because of a flat tire with 2 races left in the season.
In Hamlin’s view, it shows that right now under the playoff system, luck is more important than performance.
“We have luck involved in our sport more so than any other sport,” Hamlin said. “So that argument doesn’t hold up at all.”
Denny Hamlin :“The Fan base is kind of had enough of it”
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Hamlin didn’t stop there. “I’ve seen that this whole when the ‘lights are bright, the pressure’ like that seems like it’s a company talking point that PR is pushing to, ‘This is what we’re going to say when it comes to crowning a champion,’” he explained.
“But realistically I think the fan base is kind of had enough of it. They understand it a little better.”
To drive the point home Hamlin brought up Daytona, the next race and last race of the regular season. There, an upset winner could shake up the playoff picture. The 44-year-old driver said that a part time driver like Cody Ware who hasn’t had a single top five finish could bump out a proven a driver like Alex Bowman who has done good work throughout the season.
That kind of outcome Denny Hamlin said would be good TV drama. But it doesn’t reward the drivers who have been good all year.
The comments resonated with fans who feel the playoff format manufactures excitement at the expense of fairness. For Hamlin it’s about credibility. A true champion should be decided by consistency over the year not by surviving a system designed to create chaos.
My love for motorsports started in my childhood in Tunisia, watching races with my family. Fast forward to today, … More about Farah Ben Gamra