"If it still makes financial sense": Denny Hamlin shares his candid opinion on COTA's future on NASCAR schedule

Denny Hamlin has shared his insight into COTA's future in NASCAR. The Austin, Texas road course racetrack's place in future NASCAR schedules is unknown as Speedway Motorsports Inc. is looking to evaluate a few factors before committing to rent it for 2026.

The 23XI Racing co-owner addressed this on Actions Detrimental saying a big factor behind Speedway Motorsports deciding to go forward with COTA on next season's NASCAR schedule would be the finances of it:

"It depends on what the new lease price is. I mean there's a number where [CEO] Marcus (Smith) will be happy with profiting a certain amount of number for this race weekend." [46:00]

Hamlin explained that given what NASCAR pays SMI or CEO Marcus Smith for the race weekend, Smith can put this race on at a track of his choice, even one he owns, but for which he'd also have to bear the costs.

Denny Hamlin suggested that the cost of running a race on one of the SMI-owned racetracks compared to leasing it from COTA has made the former a more economical option over the last few years:

"I think whether we come back here is going to be largely based on how much should they charge them. Do they increase the price 30-40% and then Marcus says, 'Oh screw that, that takes too much profit away and so I'm just going to put it back at one of my old tracks.'?

I think if they increase the price we probably won't go back, if they keep it the same, I don't know the financials of it, but they would keep it here if it still makes financial sense."

In 2022, when NASCAR released the schedule for the coming season, Hamlin commented on the large number of road courses.

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Denny Hamlin called out NASCAR including too many road courses on schedule in 2023

The 2023 Xfinity Series featured eight road courses, and in Denny Hamlin's opinion, that number was a bit too much:

"I think that NASCAR for many years, and what it was built on, was oval-track racing, short-track racing. While I love to see where we’re going with our schedule on the Cup side, going back to the old historic tracks, especially with the All-Star race, I definitely — and this is just my opinion — think we have to start tapering off some of these road courses that we’re running."

Hamlin emphasized that having eight road course races in the Xfinity Series schedule was "a lot."

It's worth mentioning that in the current schedule for the 2025 season, there are five road courses and one street course.