Denny Hamlin Calls Out NASCAR, FOX Over Missed Watkins Glen Wrecks

Denny Hamlin criticised NASCAR and FOX production for missing key on-track incidents at Watkins Glen International. During his Actions Detrimental podcast, the veteran driver blasted the lack of coverage surrounding Cody Ware’s late-race wreck.

Hamlin cited staffing cuts and reliance on centralised monitoring as major failures in race management. His anguish centered around how broadcasting completely missed the Cody Ware crash with nine laps to go.

Speaking on his podcast, Hamlin immediately stated, “They didn’t follow a few wrecks that happened, that’s for sure. But NASCAR has to get better with that. Like I’ve seen their control center at their production studio. There’s absolutely no excuse… you have cameras pointing in every direction of this racetrack.”

Hamlin didn’t end his rage at the broadcaster but also roped NASCAR in, saying, “For you not to see Cody Ware destroyed in that final corner… holy cow, man. They need to say something about that. Not just, ‘We’ll look at it.’ We’re always looking to improve.”

The JGR veteran driver then went back to aim the criticism toward FOX, coupling them with the inability of the folks at NASCAR.

“It’s on both of them. It’s on both of them,” Hamlin explained before adding, “There’s a director somewhere in there in FOX’s production studio that’s looking at all the cameras.”

However, rightfully so, the incompetence of the organisations was not reason enough for NASCAR to limit safety measures, and Hamlin pointed that out.

“Because they just don’t have the track workers that they used to have, because they’ve cut. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut,” he further said. “You can’t look at 24 monitors at one time. Take some accountability on this one. This was not acceptable.”

But after all, why was NASCAR cutting officials to replace them with screens such a bad decision at The Glen that it forced comments even from Hamlin? Let’s find out.

Watkins Glen’s Layout Makes Centralized Officiating Extremely Difficult

Watkins Glen International’s 2.45-mile road course is one of NASCAR’s hardest circuits to fully monitor. Add to this the complexity of the track, Inner Loop, Turn 5, and Turns 6 and 7.

In the case of traditional ovals, such broadcasting would make sense, but circuits such as The Glen make it almost impossible to maintain visual tracking of the entire field from a single angle.

To address this issue, NASCAR utilises a centralised multi-camera monitoring system. Even today, MRN and IMSA still station dedicated turn announcers and observers around separate corners because large portions of the circuit remain visually isolated from one another.

But put simply, it is still not enough because the turns and angles of the track cannot ensure that every angle stays covered for all minute decisions that are better perceived by the human eye.

This issue of visibility can be inferred by looking back even to J.D. McDuffie’s fatal 1991 accident, which led to the addition of the Inner Loop chicane to slow approach speeds into the backstretch section.

Thus, Hamlin’s reaction wasn’t unwarranted. To prevent incidents like the crash in 1991, technology must be paired with the human eye, or with today’s spectators, we could risk an incident that could be fatal.

What are your thoughts on this?

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