Denny Hamlin Changes His Tune After NASCAR Fans Gave Him 'Sh*t' Over Bristol

NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin has changed his stance on the Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, which came under fire from fans. Hamlin remained positive about the event after securing second place, but watching the race at home the next day forced him to change his opinion.

Hamlin was beaten by Kyle Larson, who dominated the race by leading 411 laps. Despite the close battle at the front, the Bristol race became popular for limited overtaking. In addition, a lack of significant tire wear reduced the thrill and excitement of racing further, prompting the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, to voice his concern.

However, Hamlin said after the race that, "We shouldn't throw mud on the racing because someone goes out there and dominates." The statement caused outrage among fans who had witnessed a dull race. After watching the race on TV, Hamlin changed his stance and justified why he chose to support the Bristol race earlier. He said on the Actions Detrimental podcast:

"Fans are giving me sh*t because of my interview saying don't throw mud on it because someone dominated. You got to realize, I'm in a cocoon for 500 laps. All I see is my experience.

"Now, when I went back and watched the race, I hear you. I know it wasn't good, and I feel your pain. We're trying to do our best on this show to get someone in NASCAR to listen to us, to make some of these changes and I wish they would call me and say, 'What would you do?'

"Because there's about six things I think we could do to truly make it better, and it have no adverse side effects to it. But this is part of a bigger business plan for them that we're not preface to, and we just don't know."

Newsweek Sports reported on Hamlin's remarks regarding the Next Gen car, which was introduced in 2022. According to Hamlin, NASCAR hadn't tested the car enough to make it suitable for all kinds of tracks. He said:

"They just didn't do enough testing. The car wasn't ready. We had to delay it one year, we had the COVID thing — it was not thought out enough. ... We didn't have multiple racecars on the racetrack testing this car until two months before the very first race. And at that moment is when we all realized holy sh*t, you cannot pass. It was really, really bad.

"Now, we did some things. We were going to run 500 horsepower. That was the original plan is to run 500 horsepower in this thing. But it was so horrible that we got them talked into 670."

Hamlin had looked forward to his third consecutive Cup victory at Bristol, but Larson's exceptional pace denied him the win.