Denny Hamlin is not a fan of road courses, and it has little to do with the course and a lot more to do with the Next Gen car, which has proved to have a difficult time picking up pace on cars ahead on such courses. 

NASCAR announced that the Watkins Glen race will now be a part of the Chase from 2027, with the Charlotte Roval losing its spot. The sport believes that the Chase should have at least one road course, and Watkins Glen, from the outside, feels like the least bad option. 

Hamlin gave his take on it on his Actions Detrimental podcast, “It’s a knee-jerk reaction. I actually thought the crowd was okay. The weather on Sunday was okay, it was rainy. Does it need to be this early in May? No. There were some team owners that felt like ‘well, we gotta have a road course in the chase.’”

When asked which would be the best road course for the Chase, Hamlin gave an indifferent response and said, “Just not the Roval.”

Hamlin spoke about the meeting where the decision was made and said, “I tell you what, the executive/car owner that advocated for this. They did not have a good day yesterday. Historically bad day.”

Hamlin probably said that in reference to the Hendrick Motorsports team, which boasts a lineup of great road course drivers. Chase Elliott is the best of the lot with 7 wins, while Kyle Larson has 4, with William Byron adding 2 more to the list. 

But their performance at The Glen this time was very poor. No HMS driver was in the top-20. Larson, Elliott and Bowman finished 23-24-25 respectively and Byron finished 36th.

An ever-present competitor in the Cup Championship, HMS would imagine a road course added to the Chase gives their drivers a slight advantage at the business end. 

Road course could dampen Hamlin’s Cup Series dreams?

Denny Hamlin has a contract with Joe Gibbs Racing that extends to the end of the 2027 season. Hamlin has hinted that it would be his last full season, making it his last possible shot at winning the elusive championship. 

Hamlin finished 16th at Watkins Glen, and he spoke about how difficult it is with the Next Gen car to find the extra bit of performance on road courses. 

Hamlin said very clearly that the Next Gen car not only provides better performance on ovals but also better races, with cars closer to each other throughout the race. 

But road courses, he believes, are boring even for fans, who don’t get to see as much of the track that they usually do, with road courses mainly defined by tire strategies more than raw pace, which has a significant fall off for trailing cars. 

Be that as it may, if Denny Hamlin wants to end his full-time NASCAR ride with a championship under his belt, he will need to buckle up at Watkins Glen next September.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason