Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was infuriated after the 500-mile race at the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway last Sunday.
The 43-year-old Hamlin was classified 37th after getting involved in a massive Lap 157 crash with Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones. 23XI Racing's co-owner Hamlin, in a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, laid bare his frustration regarding the fuel-saving strategy used by ate team on Superspeedways.
In that episode, the #11 JGR driver conveyed his thoughts on how he is not able to race full-throttle and has to focus on conserving fuel. Hamlin said:
"It stinks because like I want to, all I want to do is race. And I want to race all out. You know, I want to be able to use everything that I've learned over the last 20 years on drafting and apply it to see like, does it work? Does it not?"
The NASCAR veteran also mentioned a disagreement with his crew chief Chris Gabehart while on the track.
"Did you hear my radio today at all? Yeah. Did you hear Chris just barking at me to keep slowing down? Like I'm like, damn it. I just want to f**king race. And he's like, Nope! Slow down. Get off the gas, Get off the gas!", added Hamlin.
NASCAR claimed to examine the fuel-saving tactic earlier this season
Many drivers were seen going half-throttle during the Daytona 500 earlier this season and now recently in Talladega, Alabama.
Senior Vice President of NASCAR, Elton Sawyer, made comments regarding this fuel-saving strategy on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Sawyer said:
"Ultimately, we want to drop the green flag on the race and they’re racing as hard as they can until they drop the checkered flag. There’s some strategy in between there, and we will definitely take a much deeper drive into this particular situation and the strategy that goes into it."
The SVP claimed to look into this matter back in February. Since then another Superspeedway race has gone, and the whole NASCAR community including the fans and many Cup Series drivers have raised their voice regarding this pressing issue at the Superspeedway tracks.
It remains to be seen if NASCAR comes up with a statement or a solution to this problem.