Denny Hamlin hammers down on problem with superspeedway racing after Talladega

Complaints once again flew after the race at Talladega on Sunday afternoon in the NASCAR Cup Series. This time, it wasn’t so much about fuel saving as it was about the inability for cars to do much passing.

The race was essentially a 2×2 decided by track positioning, rather than moves at the end to win the race. Denny Hamlin broke down the problem on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

“The way the draft works and these cars are so f*cking draggy that it just lets you run 20% throttle and keep up with the pack,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin led some of the race at Talladega early on before a costly speeding penalty ruined his day. But it was the inability to really pull away that made the race all about executing the minute details. You simply couldn’t afford penalties.

“We’re running all out vs. guys that are running half throttle,” Hamlin said. “Because they can use our draft. They don’t have to run that throttle. Again, the air that gets punched by this car is so massive and they’re so draggy that all it takes is a little bit of a sniff and you can just run half throttle right behind someone that’s running all out. That’s part of the problem. Then the other part is you cannot pull out of line because the drag.”

With that in mind at a race like Talladega, teams often choose the strategy that will give them the best chance to win. That happens to be fuel saving to maximize track positioning come the end of the race.

The change to the stage lengths at Talladega combated that somewhat. But it also made for a somewhat boring race at times.

“And that’s why these races have become fuel mileage saving, is because you saw it in the last stage,” Hamlin said. “Even when everyone wanted to go 100% it’s 2×2 … there’s nowhere to go.”

He broke down one such instance for him at Talladega. It took him forever to get back on the lead lap as a result.

“Hell, I’m battling for the lucky dog,” Hamlin said. “He’s one row up. He’s just one row in front of me. And it’s just like I’ll never get there. You’re not going to get there. There’s nothing you can do to go get that spot that’s 25 feet in front of you. You can’t do it, because I tried going high, I tried going low, I tried going middle. There’s just nowhere to go. You can’t pull out of line. So you have to stay in this pocket of cars and just, ‘Well, I guess we just wait this thing out.’ That’s why the teams have switched their mentality to shortest time on pit road.

“We want to make sure we cycle to the front, because we know that’s where we’re going to finish as long as we don’t wreck. The lack of ability to pull out of line in this car is what has caused fuel mileage racing to happen.”

Will the Preseason Thunder allow NASCAR to tinker with changes to the car such that the problems that were on display at Talladega can be resolved and the sport can get back to more compelling racing on superspeedways? That will certainly be the hope.