Denny Hamlin offers damning verdict on 'fundamental' NASCAR problem

Cup Series star Denny Hamlin has offered a damning verdict on NASCAR and their preparations when introducing the next-gen car, labelling the machinery as a 'fundamental problem'.

The newest generation of vehicles, originally known as the Gen-7 cars, were introduced to the Cup Series in 2022, but have come in for criticism since.

The latest bout of that came after last weekend's uneventful race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Kyle Larson dominated proceedings, but cars found it incredibly hard to overtake.

This harmed the spectacle greatly, and speaking on the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin has argued that NASCAR did not do enough testing before the new cars were rolled out.

"Very first team owner meeting that I was ever in, I just bought a charter, I said, 'Are you sure this car [is] ready to race at all different types of race tracks?'" Hamlin explained. "We've got a blank canvas here, we have an opportunity to build a car that can be great at all tracks, are we sure we've got it right?"

Hamlin said that he was told 'yes' to that, as he continued: "Okay, I believe you, I have no reason not to...they didn't do enough testing."

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Denny Hamlin slams NASCAR next-gen preparations

After being asked how many cars they had on track when testing the next-gen car, Hamlin explained that it was not many, also pinpointing the exact moment he and everyone else knew the car was going to be an issue.

"We didn't actually have multiple cars on the race track testing this car until two months before the very first race," Hamlin continued.

"And at that moment, is when we all realized 'holy s**t you cannot pass'. It was really really bad."

Despite his criticism, Hamlin does believe that the issues that the series is facing can be remedied if they listen to the drivers.

"We can fix this car," he concluded. "The teams can fix this car, they just gotta get with the drivers, get in a room and figure it out, 'What do you fight?' and then say, 'Okay, let's come up with some remedies of how we can change this'.

"NASCAR tries to do its best to listen to the drivers. When we talk about tires, the direction that we've gone in tires has come from the drivers.

"NASCAR and Goodyear have listened to the drivers over the last few years saying, 'We gotta soften these tires up... we gotta have fall off'.

"Unfortunately, this [Bristol] was the worst of all scenarios. The shortest of short tracks with a tire that in 150 laps fell off four-tenths. You're just not gonna have passing.

"It just proves that yes, the tire has a big role in it, but the fundamental problem is the car."

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