"It’s the worst racing" - Denny Hamlin worried about 'crazy' racing in NASCAR after the Clash at the Coliseum

NASCAR Clash at the Coliseum
Bubba Wallace Jr. (#23), Ryan Preece (#41), Martin Truex Jr. (#19) and Alex Bowman (#48) race during the 2023 NASCAR Clash at the Coliseum at Los Angeles, California. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin hasn't shied away from speaking about his experiences in the new seventh generation 'Next Gen' car. He has gone public with his criticisms.

The #11 FedEx Toyota Camry TRD driver also took the opportunity with his new podcast, Actions Detrimental on the Dirty Mo Media platform, to speak about how NASCAR has gone about starting the Cup Series season in the past two years with the Busch Light Clash.

The Exhibition-style event, held at the LA Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, hosts the 150-lap-long race on a temporary track in the football stadium. Clash at the Coliseum is meant to hype fans up before the regular season ensues with short-track racing, along with introducing NASCAR to the world and providing a stage for the sport to be seen by newer audiences.

This year's season opener, however, as fans and drivers admitted, was not as good a show as last year when the event debuted. The quarter-mile-long track saw an increase in the number of cars during the race, which made it difficult for drivers to race properly, as well as for the governing body to officiate caution flag periods, of which there were 16.

Drivers were seen blatantly pushing and bumping into each other as a result of broken-up green flag runs, with Kyle Busch calling the race a 'disaster'. Denny Hamlin also concurred on the topic and said:

“The race was so crazy, it’s such a different race when you’re running up front than you’re running in the back. Once I got spun back there, it’s awful. It’s the worst racing, it’s not even racing really, you’re just kind of bumping the car in front of you."

Hamlin further elaborated:

“It just takes one person, two rows back, to just get pissed at somebody and they just drive in and blatantly take out that person, but if that person doesn’t spin it’s the car in front that spins."

Denny Hamlin's opinion on making the Busch Light Clash a points race

Just as Joey Logano spoke about recently, Denny Hamlin also followed the #22 Ford Mustang driver's opinion on why the Clash at the Coliseum should not be a points race and said:

“We’re running the fine line between entertainment and racing at The Clash now, is this going to go to a regular-season points race? I agree with (Joey) Logano; there’s no way you can put 36 cars on that track, it’s impossible."

Watch Denny Hamlin take on the challenge of the 65th Daytona 500 later this month.

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Edited by Diptanil
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