"They certainly got some speed" - Denny Hamlin feels Ford charters are exceptionally fast on short tracks after Ryan Blaney's win at Iowa

Denny Hamlin claims that Ford's charters have performed exceptionally well at short tracks during the 2024 Cup Series season. He said this after the inaugural Iowa Speedway race where Ryan Blaney won, marking Ford's third victory as a manufacturer this season.

Ford has won the least number of races compared to its competitors Toyota and Chevrolet. The latter currently leads with eight race wins and Toyota follows them up at six. However, it is interesting to note that all three wins that Ford has gathered so far were at short ovals while Chevy and Toyota have been the dominant force on other tracks as well. This is what Denny Hamlin also said, speaking on the Actions Detrimental podcast. He said:

"One thing that is kind of catching my attention is the forwards are really strong on these short tracks like I thought it was just kind of a older pavement, you know, mechanical grip thing that they hit on."

"But clearly these three quarter mile tracks and one mile tracks, they've certainly got some speed."

Brad Keselowski was the first driver this season who won with a Ford car. He won the Goodyear 400 at the Darlington Raceway, which is a 1.366-mile track. Austin Cindric was the driver after him to win a race with the Mustang Dark Horse at the Enjoy Illinois 300, held at Gateway, again a 1.250-mile track.

NASCAR then headed to Iowa for the first Cup Series race on the 0.875-mile circuit, which was again won by a Ford. This time it was Ryan Blaney who also shared battles for the lead with the HMS charters and led a career-high 216 laps.

Denny Hamlin also recently mentioned the more consistent and stable performance that the Next Gen or the Gen 7 Cup Series charters are delivering now.

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Denny Hamlin on NASCAR's Next Gen becoming more consistent

NASCAR introduced the Next Gen cars from the 2022 Cup Series season. In the initial races, drivers found it hard to find the right balance with the cars and the performances became extremely objective. This, according to Denny Hamlin, was one of the reasons why the average finish of all the drivers changed drastically.

However, he now feels that the cars are becoming more stable and that is bringing back the average finishes of the drivers back to how it was during the Gen 6 era. He said (via the Actions Detrimental podcast):

"When we were finishing the Gen 6 car uh I think that uh we were averaging like a seven or eight something like that average finish. [...] That number is starting to creep its way back down to where it was in the Gen 6 era because people were starting to figure out how to optimize the car."

"They're not making as many mistakes on Pit Road anymore. And the reliability of the car is getting back to where we, what we had with the Gen 6." [at 31:50]