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Since the controversial finish to the Round of Eight Playoff race at Martinsville, the debate over the quality of the NASCAR Playoffs has raged on. Yesterday, a comment from Denny Hamlin’s Actions Detrimental took the internet by storm. Here’s what we’ve learned since then.
Yesterday, during Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin recounted a post-race conversation he had with Mike Forde of NASCAR Communications.
“I talked to Mike Forde a little bit last night, NASCAR comms. I said, ‘Man, I mean, you got this format getting hammered on the net.’ and he’s like, ‘it’s it’s bots. It’s not real people.’ And so I said, okay, I mean, you can you can turn a blind eye if you want and you can be in denial. But numbers don’t lie, numbers never lie.” – Denny Hamlin, Actions Detrimental With Denny Hamlin, Nov. 4
Hamlin is referring to the NASCAR Playoffs. The system as a whole has seen slander online since the wild finish at Martinsville. At Martinsville, fans saw several questionable things happen on the last lap, all of which related to advancing to the final round of the playoffs at Phoenix.
To some fans, this interaction confirmed their fears that NASCAR is not listening to or completely ignoring their opinions. Essentially, this leads to a trend of fans confirming to NASCAR on social media that they are not bots.
Forde later clarified Via his X that this is not how the interaction went down.
Forde continued to clarify later yesterday that this was a reference to the broader accuracy of commentary on X rather than the quality of fan feedback about NASCAR.
So, since the rumble from this interaction, what have we learned?
Now that Forde has provided more clarity on his end, it makes sense that NASCAR cannot treat everything online as gold. On a day-to-day basis, anyone can say anything they want whenever they want, and that includes bots. Furthermore, as far as fans go, some people tend to use their voices more when they are upset. This is especially true online.
However, Forde says that this is not a direct reference to NASCAR topics, which to some fans makes no sense. Many fans are now asking if the playoffs are the basis of the conversation; why did Forde bring this point up at all? Returning to their initial questions about why someone would use bots to influence rulings, the Playoffs, or the sport as a whole.
For Forde, the hundreds of angry comments and responses from fans are not ideal. Some are sarcastic, while some are rather inconsiderate. However, it seems that NASCAR fans are using these alleged comments toward Hamlin to confirm their worries about NASCAR and, in turn, are scapegoating Forde as part of those frustrations.
The ability of such a passing or even alleged conversation to grip the NASCAR community only further shows fans’ displeasure with what happened Sunday night. The fact of the matter is that fans of any group, age, or opinion, are worried that NASCAR is not listening to them.
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