Denny Hamlin throws Kevin Harvick under bus for rule change many fans are complaining about
Denny Hamlin has never been one to shy away from sharing his thoughts about fans, drivers, and the sanctioning body. His podcast this year has given him a new platform to amplify his voice. This week, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver addressed the past two road course races and the accompanying fan complaints about a boring product, largely due to removing cautions during stage breaks, and directly blamed Kevin Harvick.
Hamlin admitted on his Actions Detrimental podcast that he heard and saw the negative response from fans about the lack of stage cautions during races on the Indianapolis Road Course and Watkins Glen and said it all started with the Stewart-Haas Racing driver's comments last year.
"I think that the stage caution thing — I hate to throw him under the bus in his final year, but this came from Kevin Harvick, saying we have to throw out the cautions," Hamlin said. "He got it going in the media and then the people on social media took over and were saying he's right.
"So what Kevin was saying is we got to get rid of the stage cautions because everyone's strategy is the same now. Well, I can assure they're all the same now because we're just going to run our car out of gas and run it from the back because we're not planning for many cautions anymore."
Last July, the 2014 Cup Series champion was asked about the need for full-course cautions during stage breaks at road courses before the race at the Brickyard.
"In my opinion, there should be no stage breaks," Harvick said. "I think the stages should be rolling laps and when the stage ends, the stage ends, and you score points on that lap. But I think that the stages, and all the extra cautions, they just take away from the race."
In Harvick's 23rd and final season, NASCAR implemented that change, and, at least according to Hamlin, was inspired by the SHR driver's words.
It'll be interesting to see if officials opt to revert to the old process next year with Harvick retired. If that happens, it'll be even more intriguing to hear what he has to say about it at his new job as an announcer in the Fox broadcast booth.
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