Tag: Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin reveals the staggering amount of money NASCAR teams waste on tires

Denny Hamlin reveals how much NASCAR Cup Series teams spend – and waste – on tires over the course of a season.

It costs a lot of money to fund a NASCAR Cup Series team, but Denny Hamlin shared a shocking stat on his podcast that revealed how much cash some teams are wasting in unused Goodyear tires over the course of a season.

Each weekend when teams arrive at the track, a Goodyear truck will be stocked with hundreds of sets of tires. Each race has a maximum allotment of tires that can be used, and teams will always buy as many as they can get to give themselves strategic flexibility during a race – but not all of those sets of tires are used on a Sunday. Goodyear does not allow teams to turn unused tires back in for a refund, however.

“Say we go to Texas this weekend and they give us eight sets of tires. If we use six, we don’t get a rebate on those two [left over]. We do not get reimbursed for those tires…. If we have a leftover set, $2,400 a piece or whatever they might be, we can’t just turn them back into Goodyear and get a refund. They tell us ‘you’re buying these sets of tires and they’re yours now, you can do whatever you want with them.”

The problem for NASCAR teams is that on most NASCAR tracks, there are usually enough long green flag runs – and not enough tire degradation – to get through a race without using every set purchased. Which means most weekends, teams are bringing unused tires back home.

For a four-car team like Joe Gibbs Racing, which Hamlin is a part of, those costs quickly add up. Hamlin said that in 2022, the first year that NASCAR used the current next-gen car, JGR’s inventory of unused tires at the end of the season was worth nearly seven figures.

“Nearly $1 million dollars worth of tires that [Joe Gibbs Racing], the team spent on tires that it never ran.”

So why can’t NASCAR teams just re-use the tires next week?

It’s complicated. Hamlin explained that the tires his teams saved in Texas could potentially be used again when the Cup Series visits Kansas – a similar 1.5-mile track, on May 5th, but given the competitive advantage to having the freshest tires possible from Goodyear, it’s unlikely they would be used.

“They’ll put [the unused tires] in inventory…. Let’s say we go to Kansas next weekend, we likely would tap into that extra set and say ‘OK, we’re going to practice on those tires.’ But if Kansas is three, four months down the road we’re not going to want old date codes. We’re not going to want older tires because they age. Rubber ages and it changes compounds. It’s funny when you get older tires, that can really mess up a car. So it just goes to waste.”

Denny Hamlin discusses wreck while battling Chase Elliott for win at Texas

Denny Hamlin discusses his wreck while battling Chase Elliott for the win at Texas. Find out what Hamlin had to say about his wreck!

[autotag]Denny Hamlin[/autotag] passed [autotag]Chase Elliott[/autotag] in the closing laps of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, but a caution stacked the field back up. Hamlin was the control car but lost the lead after a quick caution. Then, the No. 11 car battled Elliott down the backstretch after the restart before getting loose and crashing in Turn 3.

Hamlin came home with a disappointing 30th-place finish and discussed the incident after the event. Obviously, it wasn’t Elliott’s fault, and Hamlin took the blame on Sunday.

“It just got loose up in Turn 3,” Hamlin said. “It’s something I’ve been fighting really kind of all day. And then, when you got to push it the most on a green-white-checkered, I knew that the likely scenario is I wasn’t going to make it out of the corner with as much speed as I was carrying. But it’s trying to go for the win, so I just got loose and spun out.”

“We just couldn’t get it going [on the top lane]. We had to be on the bottom, and we were in a good spot to win. We just had so many untimely cautions when we were out front and then that one where we lost control [of the race], that certainly was not helpful.”

Hamlin was searching for his third NASCAR win of the 2024 season, but it will have to wait another week. The driver of the No. 11 car had the victory before a late-race caution stole it away. It’s disappointing for Hamlin, but Elliott benefited the most. Now, Hamlin will look toward Talladega Superspeedway as his next opportunity for a victory.

[lawrence-related id=10247]

Denny Hamlin says 23XI Racing invests more into NASCAR than SMI

Denny Hamlin says 23XI Racing invests more into NASCAR than Speedway Motorsports has over the “last 10 years.”

[autotag]Denny Hamlin[/autotag] has been in the news over the last week, and it felt like it would never end for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Hamlin jumped the restart at Richmond Raceway, which caused controversy about his victory and fought with Speedway Motorsports Chief Executive Officer Marcus Smith following a negative report on Sonoma Raceway’s new repave.

Then, the driver of the No. 11 car went on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, and talked about an interesting investment stance with 23XI Racing. Apparently, Hamlin believes 23XI Racing has invested more into NASCAR than Speedway Motorsports lately.

“It’s frustrating because we know that they’re taking a bulk, and whenever we go to an SMI track, they’re taking the bulk of the money from the TV revenue,” Hamlin said. “And I know personally how much that I’ve invested in [23XI Racing]. I would venture to guarantee you that 23XI has invested more in this sport than SMI has invested in the last 10 years. And we’ve done it in four years.

“Just this one team has invested more in this sport. So, there’s a problem there. Especially when we get roughly, you know, half of what they get on any given weekend.”

This frustration stems from the charter negotiations, as the race teams don’t get a fair share of the revenue. Hamlin believes that 23XI Racing has invested more into NASCAR than Speedway Motorsports, but the latter receives more compensation. It’s understandable why Hamlin is frustrated, and hopefully, a solution will come sooner rather than later.

[lawrence-related id=9874]

Restarts still a hot topic at Martinsville

Michael McDowell believes the wrong conversation has taken place this week. “What I can’t understand is why y’all aren’t talking about [Kyle] Larson and [Joey] Logano,” McDowell said about the restart discussion that continues from Richmond Raceway. …

Michael McDowell believes the wrong conversation has taken place this week.

“What I can’t understand is why y’all aren’t talking about [Kyle] Larson and [Joey] Logano,” McDowell said about the restart discussion that continues from Richmond Raceway. “They should have been penalized for laying back. Clear as day. They were both a car length back; both of them should have been penalized. There’s no question about that one.”

The conversation has focused mainly on Denny Hamlin jumping the overtime restart at Richmond – Hamlin was the control car and admitted that he rolled before getting to the line that designates the start of the restart zone because he didn’t want to lose his advantage seeing others lagging back.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1428]

NASCAR didn’t make a call to penalize Hamlin, saying it was ‘awful close’ after initially reviewing the restart. NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer admitted that Hamlin had gone early, and further said it’s a call that would have been looked at differently had it occurred earlier in the race.

Earlier this week, Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Josh Berry and Ryan Preece spoke adamantly about the leader needing to keep their advantage on restarts. Neither driver felt Hamlin necessarily did anything wrong.

On Saturday at Martinsville Speedway, the conversation continued with more Cup Series drivers. McDowell, like Berry and Preece, seemed unfazed by what happened.

“Because the leader should have the advantage,” the Front Row Motorsports driver said.

McDowell pointed to other forms of motorsports, where the leader can restart wherever they want. He pointed to how restarts work in the NTT IndyCar series and Formula 1. However, in NASCAR, McDowell said it’s about the entertainment of the field being two and three-wide and putting on a show at the end of the race.

“I listened a little bit to different podcasts and Race Hub, and social media, and I think for the fans it’s probably a bit confusing because there is a hard line (on the racetrack),” McDowell said. “For me, it wasn’t. I think if you’re the leader, you should have the advantage under every circumstance. There should never be a situation where the leader doesn’t have the advantage on a restart. Do we need to change the line, the box, the rules, all these things? I don’t know. I just don’t want to take away the leader’s opportunity to win the race by putting so many parameters around everything.

“I’m a fan of the leader just goes whenever he wants to go and there not be any box. Whether that’s the middle of the back straightaway or the front straightaway.”

Two-time Cup series champion Kyle Busch acknowledged if Hamlin’s jump had been earlier in the race, it likely would have been reviewed and called. But Busch said NASCAR is prone to let things go at the end of a race.

“We look at bump and runs, dump and runs,” Busch said. “A guy blatantly takes out another guy and gets to score the win because they aren’t going to strip that for rough driving or something else. I feel like that’s their mentality, a little bit of not wanting to be involved in a finish that strips a win.”

NASCAR implemented a restart zone in 2009, which was the same year double-file restarts were introduced. Previously, the race leader lined up on the outside of the front row with lapped cars to their inside. It was at the leader’s discretion to restart the race between Turn 4 and the start/finish line.

The restart zone is clearly defined on each racetrack. There are also orange neon markings on the top of the outside wall to help the driver’s sightlines and usually, in blue, ‘GEICO Restart Zone’ is painted on the wall.

“I’m not surprised by the call,” Ross Chastain said. “I’m not surprised by the move, by the cars involved at the front of the field. Not saying I’m going to do the same thing because if everyone just goes early, then there is no advantage. So, the advantage is doing what your competitors beside you and behind you don’t expect. I don’t expect all restarts to fire in Turn 3 this weekend by any means. But there are two lines for a reason and we all know that.

“The scary part is when do the reactionary calls change. When is that a penalty at the end of the race or lap 10 or 30 or 300? Being that first guy who gets called for going the same distance early would be tough to swallow.”

A driver pushing their luck in the restart zone is not new, and something Kyle Larson said everyone does, especially at the end of a race. Hamlin was not the first driver Larson had seen go before the restart zone.

“It’s always been a game,” he said. “I don’t really know how I necessarily view it. I can see all sides of it. There are lines on the racetrack, so this could be your line that you have to go by. But also, as the leader, you need to have full control of the lead, and the zones are so small that the leader, most times or at least half of the time, I feel like, is at a disadvantage because that zone is so small and easy to predict and time when they go.”

Larson would like to see NASCAR go back to a larger restart zone. An expanded restart zone (by 50 percent) was something NASCAR did briefly implement at the beginning of last season, which gave the leader more time to decide when to hit the gas. It made restarts less predictable.

“I think that helps the leader, and you see less games outside the zone,” Larson continued. “I think you get more strategy going within the zone, which is fair. But Fontana, everybody behind [Joey] Logano, tried predicting when he was going to go, and he just waited until the end of the zone, which was legal. And they all crashed and then NASCAR thought it was a zone length issue when it really was just a competitor issue.

“I would just like to see the zone a lot bigger; even bigger than it used to be or was early last year because then I think you get those – I hate to call it games – strategical moves within the zone. I think you’d see less jumping the start if the zone was longer.”

The debate will likely continue, as will questions from drivers on what’s legal and not. But for Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, there seems to be a consensus that NASCAR will be closely watching restarts, and no driver is likely to try to get away with something like Hamlin did, as Austin Cindric said, “all I know is, you’d be really dumb to try and jump it this week.”

‘My opinion is the same’ – Truex on Richmond restart

Martin Truex Jr. still believes his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate jumped last weekend’s final restart at Richmond Raceway. “My opinion is the same,” Truex said Saturday about Denny Hamlin. The two restarted side-by-side for overtime, Truex on the …

Martin Truex Jr. still believes his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate jumped last weekend’s final restart at Richmond Raceway.

“My opinion is the same,” Truex said Saturday about Denny Hamlin.

The two restarted side-by-side for overtime, Truex on the outside of Hamlin. Hamlin was the race leader, having taken the top spot by beating Truex off pit road. Until the caution had come out, Truex was in control of the race and had led 228 laps.

NASCAR did not penalize Hamlin after initially saying it was “awful close” on the restart. NASCAR senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, then said two days later that Hamlin did go early and it might have been officiated differently earlier in the race.

Truex has not talked to NASCAR. The former Cup Series champion also said he doesn’t know the restart rules and doesn’t think anyone else does either.

“I’ve seen what was said,” Truex said of NASCAR’s explanation. “I read what they said and I heard what Elton Sawyer said that if it happened with 50 to go or 100 to go or 300 to go, they may have called. It’s clear as mud.”

As the series shifts to Martinsville Speedway, the conversation has been on how closely NASCAR will monitor the restart zone. As a result, some drivers believe everyone will be on their best behavior to avoid being penalized. Truex is one of them. Sort of.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1428]

“I guess if you try to jump, don’t be surprised if they penalize you,” Truex said. “I don’t know. I don’t really understand — it’s a black-and-white rule. You get to the box and you go. I don’t really understand what all the questions are about. You go before it, you should get penalized.”

Truex said he doesn’t know the answer to whether NASCAR needs additional restart rules or something put in place to police them. The race leader, the control car, has to fire first anywhere between the two lines designated as the restart zone.

“It’s hard to follow the rules, and then somebody breaks the rules and doesn’t get in trouble for it,” Truex said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Despite still facing questions about what happened at Richmond, Truex said last weekend is water under the bridge. Saturday, he qualified fourth at Martinsville Speedway, where he’s won three of the last 10 races.

“It’s a race, it’s over,” Truex said. “I was frustrated. It’s aggravating to lead an entire race, dominate a race, and then have it go away that way because I think that’s the fifth or sixth time it’s happened at Richmond. So, you just get aggravated, and it all piles on in a short amount of time, in just 10 or 15 minutes.

“I clearly lost my cool and did some things I’m probably not proud of. But you move on, you got to next week, and you hope you can come out on top and do a better job.”

Denny Hamlin, Marcus Smith engage in late night social media fight over Sonoma

Denny Hamlin and Marcus Smith engage in a late night social media fight, stemming from Sonoma Raceway’s repave falling apart.

Who says NASCAR drama only happens on the race track? On Thursday night, Joe Gibbs Racing driver [autotag]Denny Hamlin[/autotag] and Speedway Motorsports Chief Operating Officer [autotag]Marcus Smith[/autotag] engaged in a late-night social media fight. The fight stemmed from Hamlin’s comments about Sonoma Raceway, where the track’s repave is falling apart in one area.

Hamlin said North Wilkesboro Speedway is “next,” as Sonoma is the example of what happens when “you pave on a budget.” Smith called the comments “ignorance on display,” and the two went back and forth on X. The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck posted a majority of the back and forth, which most fans say ended in a Hamlin victory.

Now, what about the issue with Sonoma? Hamlin has every right to be upset because the repave shouldn’t already be coming up. Whether that warranted the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s response can be a different story, but serious concerns about Sonoma should exist. Hopefully, the track will be fixed when NASCAR comes in June, or this will become an even bigger story.

[lawrence-related id=9874]

Cup rivals come to Hamlin’s defense over Richmond restart

A trio of NASCAR Cup Series drivers were unfazed Tuesday about the final restart at Richmond Raceway when leader Denny Hamlin fired off early. “I didn’t see any issue with what happened,” Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry said. “I’ve raced a lot of …

A trio of NASCAR Cup Series drivers were unfazed Tuesday about the final restart at Richmond Raceway when leader Denny Hamlin fired off early.

“I didn’t see any issue with what happened,” Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry said. “I’ve raced a lot of short tracks and I’ve raced a lot of different rules — restart lines, restart zones, all these different things — and it’s really easy to completely handicap the leader. I think there’s got to be some flexibility there.”

Hamlin admitted he rolled early because he could see Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano lagging back to get a run. As the leader, Hamlin didn’t want to lose his advantage of being the control vehicle, and it was clear on video replay that he took off before hitting the line, which signifies the restart zone.

“I think the leader is the leader for a reason; he needs to have the right to control the restart and a lot like what Denny said, a lot of the times you’re judging what you’re going to do as the leader based off the car in second, third,” Berry noted. “These guys are laid back trying to time the run — they’re all trying to time it right, and sometimes you’ve got to push the envelope a little bit to basically not end up getting screwed out of the lead. Just in general, I think it’s really blown out of proportion.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I don’t think there needs to be data and policing. We need to have flexibility, and drivers need to be able to race and make decisions. If you wanted to make a call over a couple of feet of going early in the restart zone or before the restart zone, I think you just as easily make the same call if someone is laid back 3 feet versus 2 feet. I don’t think there’s a big issue with the restarts to me. It’s just blown out of proportion.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1428]

Berry’s teammate, Ryan Preece, was just as passionate about the fact that there was no need for a ruling from NASCAR. Preece, who also has a short-track background, agreed the leader is sometimes at a disadvantage with a restart zone.

“You’re at the mercy of if I don’t go at the first line and you wait further into the box, well, what happens if the guy in second goes and has a nose out there and that’s not called?” Preece said. “Well, now you’ve lost the advantage. Or if you wait and then Joey [Logano] rolls up and has momentum on you and pulls out at the start/finish line, you get put three-wide going into Turn 1. It’s a lose-lose situation.

“So, at the end of the day that’s racing. I would have done the same thing (as Hamlin).”

Both agreed Hamlin did what he had to do. Sunday night, in the immediate aftermath, NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said it was “awful close” but the restart was good. Tuesday morning, during his weekly appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Sawyer admitted that Hamlin went early, and if it had been earlier in the race, it would have been dissected and reviewed differently.

“I think we all feel like they definitely are policed differently (depending on the lap),” Berry said. “The reality is that everyone wants transparency and they (NASCAR) were transparent, and now everybody doesn’t like that. We kind of know that if you just jump the opening start, you’re more likely to get a penalty than if it’s racing for the lead. Everyone is going to have a different opinion if that’s right or wrong, but I think that’s a thing. And as a driver, you feel like that’s a thing. So, I don’t know.”

Former Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski appreciated hearing from Sawyer. However, he wasn’t up in arms about what happened and pointed out how the conversation was about too much officiating a week before on the Circuit of The Americas road course.

“I really respected Elton Sawyer’s answer when he said they just missed it,” Keselowski said of the restart. “I think that’s OK. I think that happens in sports. In the ideal scenario, we don’t put them in a position where an official has to make a decision. We have all the technology and all the things to where everything is black and white. But the world is not that perfect, and the technology to do everything is hard to ascertain and make bulletproof.

“Sometimes things slip through the cracks. You get mad at them and then a week later, everybody seems to forget about them. But I think holistically, you’d like to solve for challenges like that just being careful that you don’t fall into the natural law of unintended consequences that seems to follow that. I saw Chad Little a few weeks ago and we were sharing a joke at COTA with respect to track limits of, this is what happens when you have definitive and perfect technology. You end up with 40-something penalties over a race weekend.

“So, I think COTA was a perfect example of how this can go the other way where you have the technology to solve challenges and you create black and white, remove some of the gray judgment calls, and people don’t like that either. I totally understand the challenge that those guys must face in picking a path for this (one). It’s the challenge of the week, and to be honest, if that’s the worst challenge we have coming out of Richmond, I think we probably had a pretty good week.”

Preece conceded it was a tough situation but doesn’t want to see judgment calls from NASCAR. In a way, Preece said restarts are predictable if the field knows when the leader will go because of the restart zone.

“We all know how to perform restarts and go do them,” Preece said. “We know when there’s games. Now, I don’t want to see leading that in the middle of (Turns) 3 and 4 decides to pick it up 10 miles an hour and then step on the brake. That’s something you do when you race go-karts or quarter midgets. When you get into a full-size race car when you know there’s a box, it’s consistent pace and then go. But I’m a fan of not having calls for a situation like that.”

In the end, the Stewart-Haas drivers humorously said it comes down to who was involved. If NASCAR were to have penalized Hamlin and taken the win away, there wouldn’t be the same uproar over officiating.

“No, because it was him,” Berry said. “If it was one of us, people wouldn’t even think about it, honestly. It’s subjective. If it’s myself or Ryan going for our first win, are you really going to call it because they went two feet early?”

Denny Hamlin jokes with NASCAR fans about jumped restart at Richmond

Denny Hamlin jokes with NASCAR fans about his “jumped restart” at Richmond Raceway on Easter Night.

After [autotag]Denny Hamlin[/autotag] won on Easter Night, NASCAR left Richmond Raceway with controversy in the Cup Series. On the final restart in NASCAR overtime, Hamlin jumped the restart and pulled ahead of Martin Truex Jr. after going into Turn 1 side-by-side. After the event, Truex said his teammate jumped the restart, and social media was on fire.

NASCAR missed the call, which was later admitted on Tuesday morning, but Hamlin had a different idea on Monday. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver sent a post on X, saying, “After much consideration, talks with the team and dissecting the SMT data, it is clear that I jumped the start. Because of that, I’ve decided to do the right thing and…wish you a happy April Fools Day! #A11IN.”

Hamlin quoted the post with him jumping the restart from Truex’s onboard camera and had some fun with the situation. The driver of the No. 11 car earned the victory as he drove his way through the field during the last green flag run, setting himself up for a clutch pit stop sequence. It’s just a little April Fools’ Day fun as Hamlin celebrates his second win of the 2024 season.

[lawrence-related id=9822]

Which NASCAR driver has the most wins at Martinsville?

Which NASCAR driver has the most wins at Martinsville Speedway? Check out who tops the list at Martinsville!

NASCAR has a very long history with Martinsville Speedway, and it has produced great moments dating back to the 1949 season. Since that point, the NASCAR Cup Series has competed in a staggering 150 races. However, which NASCAR driver has the most wins at Martinsville? Well, the answer won’t surprise you due to their previous success in the sport.

[autotag]Richard Petty[/autotag] has 15 victories at Martinsville, which makes him the most successful driver at the track in NASCAR history. Petty holds a four-win lead over Darrell Waltrip, as the two drivers are the only ones over single digits. Overall, the seven-time NASCAR champion is unlikely to lose this record anytime soon.

As for the active NASCAR driver with the most wins at Martinsville, Denny Hamlin holds the top spot with five victories. Hamlin is the only active driver with more than three wins, so his spot in the record books will be safe for the upcoming event at Martinsville in 2024.

[lawrence-related id=3204]

NASCAR admits to missing Denny Hamlin jump the restart at Richmond

NASCAR admits to missing Denny Hamlin jump the restart in his win at Richmond. Find out what NASCAR said about its mistake!

[autotag]Denny Hamlin[/autotag] won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway, but it wasn’t without controversy. As the control car, Hamlin jumped the final restart in NASCAR overtime, and no penalty was called. Following the event, Martin Truex Jr. said he jumped the restart while NASCAR reviewed it and deemed the launch OK.

On Tuesday morning, NASCAR appears to have backed away from that stance. NASCAR Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to discuss the final restart at Richmond.

“There’s no doubt [Denny Hamlin] rolled early,” Sawyer said. “It’s a bang-bang call, it’s at the end of the race. We’re a live sporting event. We don’t have the luxury of a timeout, and go to the sidelines, and review it, and make that call. If this happens at Lap 10 or 50 or 300, the call could have been different. If I’m a competitor, I wouldn’t be playing that game every week.”

It is great that NASCAR is taking accountability for missing a call. Admitting that it was wrong will help set a much-needed precedent moving forward. Hopefully, NASCAR will learn from this experience and apply it to future races. However, the admission doesn’t change the outcome, as Hamlin now has two wins to start the 2024 season.

[lawrence-related id=9822]