{"id":161624,"date":"2025-08-20T17:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161624\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T17:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:19:10","slug":"denny-hamlin-slams-nascar-and-says-fans-over-it-with-playoff-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161624\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin Slams NASCAR and Says Fans \u2018Over It\u2019 With Playoff System"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR ace Denny Hamlin<\/a> isn\u2019t buying NASCAR\u2019s 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 \u201cwhen the lights are brightest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate started after NASCAR\u2019s \u201cChief Hype Officer\u201d Dylan \u201cMamba\u201d Smith said the playoffs aren\u2019t necessarily designed to crown the best driver all season, but the best driver-team that executes under pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On his Actions Detrimental<\/a> podcast, Hamlin fired back, saying luck plays too big a role in the sport for that to be true.<\/p>\n

Hamlin went on to cite Corey Heim from the Truck Series<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

In Hamlin\u2019s view, it shows that right now under the playoff system, luck is more important than performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have luck involved in our sport more so than any other sport,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cSo that argument doesn\u2019t hold up at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin :\u201cThe Fan base is kind of had enough of\u00a0it\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Syndication:Credit: Ayrton Breckenridge\/The Register \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Hamlin didn\u2019t stop there. \u201cI\u2019ve seen that this whole when the \u2018lights are bright, the pressure\u2019 like that seems like it\u2019s a company talking point that PR is pushing to, \u2018This is what we\u2019re going to say when it comes to crowning a champion,\u2019\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut realistically I think the fan base is kind of had enough of it. They understand it a little better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019t had a single top five finish could bump out a proven a driver like Alex Bowman who has done good work throughout the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That kind of outcome Denny Hamlin said would be good TV drama. But it doesn\u2019t reward the drivers who have been good all year.<\/p>\n

The comments resonated with fans who feel the playoff format manufactures excitement at the expense of fairness. For Hamlin it\u2019s about credibility. A true champion should be decided by consistency over the year not by surviving a system designed to create chaos.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tMy love for motorsports started in my childhood in Tunisia, watching races with my family. Fast forward to today, … More about Farah Ben Gamra<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR ace Denny Hamlin isn\u2019t buying NASCAR\u2019s latest explanation for the playoff format. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[11130,1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-161624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-denny-hamlin","9":"tag-nascar","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115062241154081395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}