Denny Hamlin had FOMO watching Atlanta race play out, gives honest take on EchoPark Speedway

Denny Hamlin was involved in a wreck early at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway) that put a damper of his evening. He was jealous of his fellow drivers who were able to race for the win throughout the Quaker State 400.

Chase Elliott was crowned the winner, but Hamlin couldn’t believe how much space the drivers were able to work with, and the moves they were able to pull off. During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, the veteran wheelman explained his disappointment in not being part of the fun.

“I was FOMO’d, at the end of that race, watching it with that much space, the guys creating the runs and having the ability to create the runs,” Hamlin said. “Like, if they got shuffled to eighth, no problem, they’re back in three laps. I had FOMO there because I was like, ‘Damn it, this would be so fun to be a part of this.’ Not the two by two, cause you’re just stuck. But this is what happens when you put the cars on the edge of grip, and that’s what Atlanta has.

“Roll the tape from the previous Atlanta race, this is what we aspire Daytona and Talladega to be. Handling actually matters. Start spreading out the field, the good handling cars and bad handling cars. Give us space to work, work the lines and then the best car, the best driver will come out on top.”

Alas, the response to this past weekend’s race in Atlanta was overwhelmingly positive, from the drivers, to the fans and media members alike. Hamlin continued, elaborating on why it created better racing than other tracks with a similar style, like the aforementioned Daytona and Talladega.

“Because of its size, because of the tight corners, it’s creating the cars being more on edge of grip,” Hamlin added. “Where the corners are so broad and wide and the banking is so high at Talladega and Daytona, the car is never on edge of grip, one way or another. So, the best way to explain it is the tires are under-saturated at Talladega and Daytona to where, I mean, you really almost could push in the corners at those tracks, because the cars just have plenty of grip, because of how slow it’s going. You know, how slow we’ve made the cars.

“Atlanta, you can’t see it on TV, but the cars are sliding all the way through the corner. You can’t run right behind somebody in the corner. You’ll get arrow-tight or loose, so you’ve gotta back off a little bit. Then, that creates a gap. Somebody gets a run, boom, takes your gap. So, the fantastic racing was just a perfect combination of everything that had happened between the car, track, and then that wreck.”

As you can tell, EchoPark Speedway has a fan in Denny Hamlin. When the Cup Series returns to Georgia next season, he’ll be hoping to avoid any and all wrecks, and be able to compete for the win in the final laps, avoiding some serious FOMO.