When the racing stirs up the fan reaction that North Wilkesboro did on Sunday, Denny Hamlin will always be there to offer a solution. Hamlin focus primarily on two areas for where North Wilkesboro could be improved, the racing surface and the tires.
One of the talking points from this weekend’s race at North Wilkesboro was the racing surface. There were issues during the preliminary events during the week as they patched up the asphalt where needed. Thankfully, all of the NASCAR events went off without a problem with the surface.
However, Hamlin argues that the racing surface was detrimental (pun intended) to the racing product. He first discussed the patches out on the race track.
Hamlin said that when talking with Tyler Reddick, Reddick said that the track changed a lot between testing and the race specifically mentioning tire fall off. Hamlin went on to discuss more about how the patchwork done to the bottom of the track made it a one-groove race track, and that was a detriment to the racing product. He even discussed how drivers were focused on racing the race track more than racing each other.
“That strip around the very bottom was so grippy that you had to be in it.” Hamlin said, “…Our cars do not race as well on single-file tracks. They don’t. Especially if it’s a short track. I encourage the staff, Marcus Smith, to repave it, but get drivers feedback on the repaving.”
When talking more about how to repave the track, Hamlin talked about ways they could construct the asphalt. He says that things such as adding more rocks to the asphalt to increase abrasiveness while also making sure the surface is good enough to handle things such as rain. He even challenged those in charge to open up their wallets if necessary.
“[Marcus Smith] even said that if they do repave [North Wilkesboro] it’s going to instantly have character. Listen, don’t make it character like Atlanta where all you did is dig up pavement and repave it with the same old bumps.” Hamlin said, “The bumps isn’t what fixes it. You gotta fix the actual asphalt. Maybe you have the opportunity to do some variable banking with it. I understand there is a little cost associated with it, but if you hace really good racing it pays for itself.”
Hamlin continued to tell Smith to reach out to the drivers to help make the best racing possible. NASCAR drivers have been talking more in recent years about their voices being heard to help out with things like repaves.
Of course, North Wilkesboro has to be repaved eventually, so this is something that is going to have to be considered regardless at some point down the line. Will it fix every issue with the next-gen cars on short tracks? Probably not, but repaving a track the same way it always has been will do nothing to change the racing product.
Denny Hamlin believes that he found the magic bullet for the competition problem on short tracks. That magic bullet is the Goodyear tires.
Goodyear tires have been a subject of scrutiny on short tracks since the Next-Gen car was introduced. Tracks that normally produced huge tire fall-off were not producing the same fall-off. With passing very difficult, some blamed the lack of tire fall-off.
This weekend at North Wilkesboro was a different story with tires falling off dramatically. This fall-off is what allowed Kyle Larson to go from last to first during segment one and ultimately win the race. Goodyear’s Greg Stucker also said that he feels Goodyear can get more aggressive with their tires now.
What did Denny Hamlin have to offer to the conversation? He pointed to how the rain tires performed and how the race was following tire fall-off for potential solutions on short tracks.
He pointed out that one of the issues with the tire fall-off at North Wilkesboro was that while there was fall-off, most drivers fell-off to the same speed meaning that there was not as much movement throughout the pack. With the rain tires, there was more variable fall-off based on who could conserve their tires more. Hamlin pointed specifically to data he found from heat race two, which was on slick tires, where there was little change in position from lap 2 until the caution at lap 25.
He even went on to talk about the concept of tire saturation, which Goodyear told him caused a lot of the issues with following other cars on tracks.
“There’s a saturation number in the tires. [Goodyear] said that that saturation number went up.” Hamlin said, “…That is the advantage that the first car has is he has all the air on the car pushing the car down into the race track and saturating the tire to give it more grip. When we get behind, air comes off the car. No longer do you lose downforce just generally in the car, but the tire loses a ton of grip because you are not saturating it.”
Hamlin felt that the rain tires performed better because of the lack of tire saturation. He theorized that if that same concept was brought to slick tires, it would not only be easier to follow someone, but it would also make tire wear more variable. This puts more emphasis on skill and produces comers and goers.
I am not an engineer, but, it seems that Hamlin has some good idea what he is discussing. Even Goodyear acknowledged that the drivers feel that the tires are going the right direction with a new compound being tested at New Hampshire.
Changing the tires is definitely the most cost effective way to help the next-gen racing product. Even if the short track product is not perfect, the increase in tire fall-off made the racing product more compelling in some ways. Might as well try it.
Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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