“We don’t have standards”: Denny Hamlin calls out NASCAR’s treatment of Iowa Speedway

NASCAR will visit the iconic IOWA Speedway next week for the 17th Cup Series race of the season. However, Denny Hamlin is not happy with the way NASCAR has treated the short track lately. In the latest episode of Actions Detrimental, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver shared his opinion on the recent repave.

Although never announced officially, NASCAR made a few changes to the layout during a Goodyear tire test towards the end of May.

NASCAR added IOWA to its roster in the summer of 2023. Therefore, NASCAR had a little more than seven months to revamp the track. However, three of those seven months were in winter, which is not a good time for the task.

Denny Hamlin, however, was not ready to buy this. Suggesting that NASCAR has had enough time to do the job, the veteran driver said (51:53),

"How many more days do you need though to just finish a couple more lanes? It's one lane on the bottom and then there's a partial lane up top. You're telling me you ran out of time that it would have taken you to move the top lane from the beginning of the corner to the end?"

According to the Daily Downforce, Atlanta Motor Speedway, which is a lot bigger than IOWA Speedway, took about five and a half months to get a reconfiguration.

"It shows where NASCAR is a little different," Hamlin continued. "We don't have standards when it comes to facilities. We have standards, but they are very very loose. I don't buy the fact that we ran out of time."

Nevertheless, action resumes at IOWA as the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Cup Series will visit the track respectively on June 15 and 16. Both races will stream live on the USA Network with radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR radio. Fans can catch the Cup Series race on Peacock as well.

Denny Hamlin predicts the nature of racing at IOWA this coming weekend

IOWA Speedway has been the host to several races since its inaugural year in 2006, but never a NASCAR Cup Series race. Therefore, there is a lot of speculation regarding how the Iowa Corn 350 will pan out on Sunday. Denny Hamlin, too, shared his thoughts on his podcast.

There wasn't enough time to hold different tire tests at IOWA Speedway. Reflecting on the same, the 23XI Racing owner explained,

"The tires are very hard so we're not gonna run any soft tires at that track. There wasn't enough time to test different tires or manufacture...so seems like we are not allowing enough time for things to happen."

When asked how IOWA Speedway would race, Hamlin said,

"I have no idea. It (will be) very fast and passing will be extremely difficult. Because you can't go anywhere else on the racetrack."

Denny Hamlin is currently third in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings with 535 points to his name. The 43-year-old athlete is looking forward to earning his fourth victory of the season and also the 55th of his Cup career.