NASCAR Engine Builder: Increase to 750 Horsepower “Probably Wouldn’t be Much of a Change”
What’s Happening? In a recent interview, Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines, claims that he would like to see NASCAR…
In the latest episode of Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin spoke on the state of fan morale in NASCAR, claiming that NASCAR needs to do a better job of listening to both fans and drivers on pressing issues, rather than brushing them off.
Following Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, in which he blew an engine only a handful of laps in, Denny Hamlin voiced his frustrations with the current state of morale amongst NASCAR fans. While Hamlin believes there are many reasons fan morale is low, he believes NASCAR’s failure to address driver and fan concerns is a major factor in this issue.
Hamlin also points to the low numbers in Jeff Gluck’s ‘Good Race Poll’ and a recent interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio with Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, as examples of NASCAR dismissing drivers’ opinions and, as a result, lowering it’s credibility with fans.
As Hamlin says, “I think that, in my opinion, when you had Elton go on [SiriusXM] last week, [and] talk about superspeedway racing and say, ‘I don’t understand, what do we have to fix? Look at the stats that we’ve got for this week. We had 67 lead changes and whatever.’ I think you lose some credibility with the fans. And I think the fans have a low morale right now due to their lack of faith in the competition leadership.”
During that interview, Sawyer, responding to fan and driver outrage about the quality of superspeedway racing, said, “You have 67 lead changes amongst 23 different drivers, so when we look at all of that, what are we trying to fix?
Hamlin says that while he appreciates NASCAR’s transparency, these comments brush off drivers’ and fans’ opinions on the issue. He further alleges that NASCAR “created its own stats to make itself look good.” This is in reference to the Green Flag Passes statistic, which tracks how many times one car passes another for any reason throughout a race.
“When they created a Green Flag Passes stat that didn’t even include the start-finish line, it was just. . . however many noses go ahead of each other, at any invisible point on the track, and we’re going to count that as a pass. Like, I’m sorry, you’re just making something up to look better.” — Denny Hamlin
Hamlin says that this issue goes beyond NASCAR, claiming that NASCAR fans are smart enough to know that this stat doesn’t hold much weight on the competition side.
“The problem in my mind is that our race fans are smarter than that,” Hamlin said. He supplies a short anecdote about a recent conversation with former Daytona 500 Champion and FOX Sports Analyst Michael Waltrip.
“Michael Waltrip said this to me this weekend. We were golfing, and he’s like, I don’t understand what everyone’s so mad about. Look, the cars are two by two, and the casual fan doesn’t know that they can’t pass. I’m like, the amount of casual fans watching us each and every week is 10%? I mean, our fans are core, man. They know what they’re seeing. They’re smarter than you think they are.” — Denny Hamlin
Hamlin recited the often-talked-about point of the NASCAR Next Gen Car’s inability to pass at superspeedways; however, Hamlin uses this, alongside Waltrip and Sawyer’s dismissal of the complaints, as examples of what is lowering fan sentiment.
“If you discredit what your drivers are saying and what core fans are saying, I think you lose some credibility with them,” Hamlin said. “And I think that that’s why fans’ sentiment overall is low on the virtual pole.”
Hamlin is referring to Jeff Gluck of the Athletics weekly “Good Race Poll,” which often receives tens of thousands of votes from fans and is on a skid of low ratings. The long-time driver and team owner reminds NASCAR that metrics like the Good Race Pole should not be ignored.
“The sanctioning body, though, just needs to do better at listening to drivers and core fans, because they’re smarter than you think,” Hamlin said. “That’s just the easiest way I can say it.”
Hamlin, after a short discussion about recent comments from Roush-Yates CEO Doug Yates on horsepower, gave his opinion on what NASCAR could have done better after Talladega. He states that Sawyer could have given a short version of the NASCAR side of the superspeedway argument while also letting the fans know that their voices are heard.
“If I were NASCAR PR, I would say, ‘All right, go in there, and you tell them, we hear you. We hear our drivers they’re saying they’re not able to make moves like they they want to. We’re going to look into that. As a counter that, we did have some great passing statistics this weekend that shows on our metrics that things are not as bad as they seem, but we trust our drivers and we hear our fans that they want their drivers to be able to pull out a line and make a pass, and we’re going to try to put a little bit of work into that to fix it.’ ” — Denny Hamlin.
While this is just one driver speaking up for the fans, Hamlin is, of course, one of the biggest names in the garage area and a team owner. If NASCAR was overlooking these issues, the always-controversial Hamlin may have just brought fan opinion to the forefront.
What’s Happening? In a recent interview, Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines, claims that he would like to see NASCAR…
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