A potential top-10 result ended up in an upset 23rd-place finish for Kyle Larson at Nashville. On the penultimate Lap 299, Kyle Larson slowed down and eventually spun before heading back to pit road. But Denny Hamlin doesn't fully agree with how it all panned out.

While discussing the incident on Actions Detrimental , Hamlin said, “He that he might have did that on purpose cause he gassed it. Well, he gassed it in a spot you should be decel-ing and not.”

During the Cracker Barrel 400, Larson had a rollercoaster of a race. But in the final stage, when he finally managed to run in the top 10, he suffered a flat tire, which slowed him down and caused him to spin that caused a caution.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was further questioned about how it would benefit the Hendrick Motorsports driver if the caution were thrown out. To which the No 11 driver replied, saying, “keeps him on the lead lap.”

The caution, as explained by Hamlin, would have benefited the No 5 driver as it froze the field, and that helped Larson to stay on the lead lap instead of losing one.

Ultimately, Larson finished 23rd. Before this, Kyle Larson had a streak of finishing in the top 10 at Nashville. That streak ended on Sunday, unfortunately. 

Besides this incident, the 23XI co-owner also had a suggestion for the race duration. 

Denny Hamlin speaks about shortening the Nashville race

The race at the 1.3-mile Nashville Superspeedway may have been an entertaining one, but it lasted longer than some of the fans and drivers would have liked, going over 3 hours and 20 minutes. 

The races at most intermediate tracks are 400 miles long, and so was the race at Nashville. But since the track is flatter, it produces slower laps. 

Denny Hamlin discussed the same in his podcast episode. He said, “So on a normal mile and a half that we run a 400-mile race, like at Michigan this weekend, that race will be two-thirds of the time this one takes, because we’re running so much faster. It’s about lap time and speed versus mileage.

“So at a track like this, it should be 300 miles, because you’re running a slower pace. In the time that you can run 300 miles at Nashville, you can run 400 miles at Michigan. So … the math just doesn’t math to me. This is why this race, the math doesn’t math to me.” 

In fact, journalists Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck also resonated that sentiment in a separate conversion. “I’m too old for this,” Gluck said.

Gluck explained how races ending late at night like this one affect the core fans of the sport, saying, “People have to work tomorrow, and especially like blue-collar NASCAR fans. People have jobs where they’ve got to get up early.”

Bianchi, like Hamlin, also suggested a simple fix: “I don’t know why races like this have to be 400 miles. What’s wrong with a 300-mile race?”

Coming back, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver further pointed out that even without the delay, the race would have gone on until midnight. The cleanest race at Nashville, with just four caution laps, lasted for 3 hours and seven seconds in 2023.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason