"My job is to make the sport better" - Denny Hamlin explains why he avoided taking credit for NASCAR's $1 million in-season tournament

Denny Hamlin has outlined his reasons for not taking credit for the recently announced $1 million dollar in-season tournament inspired by his own bracket challenge idea from last year. Hamlin also spoke about how this new initiative will infuse more excitement into a somewhat less exciting part of the season and be beneficial for everyone involved.

In the aftermath of NASCAR's announcement of the new in-season tournament, fans demanded Hamlin be given credit for this idea. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver explained to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio why he didn't want credit and how it all came together.

"When we did it last year, I think it caught many by surprise within NASCAR how many people participated. We had close to 70,000 brackets filled out, and it only channeled through Dirty Mo Media. That's through my social channels and theirs. That's the only way we got the word out," Denny Hamlin said.

As his bracket challenge started to gain traction, he began to have conversations within NASCAR, who were curious about the participation. Once they got to know of the numbers, they didn't want to be "left at the train station" with this idea.

Denny Hamlin was then told by NASCAR that while they're interested in that idea, they can't get to it before the new media deal is finalized. The #11 driver replied by explaining why he wanted his idea to go from his podcast to be implemented in NASCAR.

"I said, 'I'm just trying to give back to the sport, give back to the drivers. And again, I don't need credit for that. It'd be great, but it's not my job. My job is to make the sport better and I believe this is an idea that could really take off,'" he described.

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Denny Hamlin claims the $1 million in-season tournament is a win-win for everyone

Hamlin further told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that if one goes back to when he first introduced the bracket challenge, it was due to a lull in the schedule "where things get kinda boring."

The 23XI Racing co-owner mentioned that NASCAR is only competing against baseball at that time of the year, which is an opportunity they should take advantage of.

"Why are we not crushing it (baseball)? Why are we not creating more storylines through a bracket and creating a race for 21st that normally no one would give a c**p about? Now it means something. And so it absolutely will do that. This is something that hopefully the teams and drivers will benefit from long term," Hamlin claimed. [1:18]

Denny Hamlin was also certain that TV partners will benefit from the in-season tournament because of the storylines it would create at a point in the season when things get monotonous.