For the better part of this decade, every running of the Brickyard 400 has reignited the same debate: Is Indianapolis Motor Speedway simply too difficult for modern stock cars to produce exciting racing?
For one, the NASCAR Cup Series’ oldest driver, Denny Hamlin, begs to differ.
Following Sunday’s race, the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran argued that the problem lies with NASCAR’s Next Gen car, not one of motorsports’ most historic venues.
While acknowledging that passing at Indy has never been easy, Hamlin believes the current aerodynamic package has turned a difficult challenge into an almost “impossible” one, prompting him to call for NASCAR to seriously consider changes before next year’s Brickyard 400.
Reflecting on the past race, Hamlin didn’t mince words when discussing the lack of passing at the Brickyard. Speaking on his super-popular Actions Detrimental podcast, the three-time Daytona 500 winner dismissed the idea that Indianapolis itself is to blame for processional racing.
“This is a car problem, not an Indy problem. And yes, passing at Indy has been difficult for decades, but it ain’t been impossible,” Hamlin then took viewers for a stroll down memory lane. “Tony Stewart ran down Kevin Harvick, packed air, moved him. That’s been a thing. Passings always been difficult, it’s never been impossible and right now its impossible.”
The example Hamlin referenced remains one of the most memorable finishes in Brickyard history.
During the 2007 running of the race, Hamlin’s then teammate tracked down Harvick over the closing laps, pulled alongside him, made light door-to-door contact, and completed the pass with ten laps to go before driving away to victory.
It was the kind of hard-earned overtake that demonstrated how difficult, but still achievable, passing at Indianapolis once was.
The 45-year-old believes that distinction has disappeared with the current Next Gen hardware. Instead of drivers being able to pressure the leader into a mistake or execute a clean pass, the current aerodynamic package leaves them stuck in dirty air unless the car ahead makes a significant error.
Rather than simply criticizing the current product, Hamlin also called on NASCAR to take a more aggressive approach toward finding a solution. He stated:
“I would love to see us in the competition committee come up with, ‘you know what, at Indy, we’re going to do something about that race,’ and I don’t know what it is. It’s counterintuitive, but I think it needs a little bit bigger rear spoiler. The underbody, I don’t know. Got to do something to take away all that downforce that’s coming from the underside of the car, I think. I don’t know. But we got nothing to lose, truthfully.”
Of course, Hamlin isn’t the first person to question the racing product at Indianapolis, but his comments shift the focus away from the speedway itself.
The Brickyard has faced renewed scrutiny in recent years, with veterans like Kyle Petty even arguing that it shouldn’t be considered one of NASCAR’s crown jewel races because its history belongs primarily to IndyCar rather than stock-car racing.
Hamlin, however, isn’t questioning the iconic venue’s place on the calendar. His concern is whether NASCAR can give its drivers a car capable of producing better racing at one of the sport’s biggest events.
As the driver admits, his proposed fixes aren’t definitive. Whether it’s a larger rear spoiler, underbody changes, or another aerodynamic adjustment, Hamlin believes the competition committee should be willing to test ideas rather than accept another race in which passing for the lead is virtually nonexistent.
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