Denny Hamlin did not hold back when he criticized the Daytona 500 and NASCAR racing at-large describing it as such “a f***ing crapshoot now.”

In the most recent episode of Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin, Hamlin noted how much time he’s spent honing his craft and learning from the greats of the sport at superspeedways such as Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., but noted that times have now changed.

He questioned, “Are we now going to start viewing the Daytona 500 winners like we question our champions? It’s a bunch of questions now. … And I hate that for the winners because this is their big moment to shine and it’s a big accomplishment. But I hate the fact about how much luck is involved in NASCAR now.”

“I used to hate the word ‘luck.’ And it was so overused in our sport for decades. … NASCAR media overuses the word ‘luck’ so much. They always have. And it’s like, no. You’ve got to put yourself in the position to not capitalize on other’s misfortune – that’s luck. Like you needed them to have misfortune for you to win, that is luck. But it’s making the moves at the end of the race to win. And it’s that, ‘Wow!’ That guy just did something that’s hard to do. It shows that he’s better than the rest of them. And I feel like we’ve lost that. It’s just a matter or wrecks at super speedways,” he observed. “And I feel like the Daytona 500 is a microcosm of the sport in general when it comes to how we crown our champion now as well.”

From there, Hamlin explained how this all started, “This started with the competition group a decade ago when we started cutting horsepower because we want it to look good on TV. We want you to think that they can pass not that they can actually pass.”

“And it just, for me, has gotten to the place where … the entertainment of it has far overtaken the sport of it. And I don’t know how we reverse things,” he added.

Hamlin would go on to discuss how the Daytona 500 has deteriorated in recent years, “We used to run 200 mph at super speedways and the cars were hard to really drive and handle. Daytona 500 was a battle of the best driver and the best team that brought the best car that had a great setup under it. And some of the greats of our sports could navigate the traffic and use it to their advantage. That art is gone now. Just like the art of passing on short tracks is gone now. Now, we just knock each other out of the way and say, ‘That’s just short track racing.'”

After briefly talking about how much he spends on his 23XI cars to try and give them a chance at winning, he commented, “It’s just such a f***ing crapshoot now. I hate that what is supposed to be our most prestigious race, a showcase of heroes, is luck. It is luck. And I don’t care how else you want to say. It is luck. And it is luck because you just have to avoid the wrecks. And then if you can get lucky enough to where you avoid the wreck and then the track stays green and you get to race back. I just don’t know anymore. I don’t know anymore. And I’ve grown really agitated with how we’ve gotten here.”

Next, Hamlin returned to why the racing has regressed, “It’s a product of the cars are way too easy to drive. They have way too much grip, way too much drag. And what it does is it creates a great optic on TV that these cars 2×2, 3×3, but ain’t nobody passing nobody. We’re out there just riding, saving fuel for the greater part of the race. … We definitely should address it.”

As for how to solve the problem with the cars, Hamlin said, “If I could throw out my suggestion is NASCAR to please, please, please get drag out of these cars. Reduce spoiler size, please. I just think we got to get drag out of these race cars. It will fix so many things. I believe it will fix a bit of the fuel mileage races that we have. … It will allow us to pull out of line when we get runs. It will allow us to not be so struck to the racetrack. … Getting a large chunk of drag out of these cars, reducing the horsepower back to what we had before. I just want to see us do something different to put the sport back in it and take luck back out of these prestigious events.”

Interestingly, much of Hamlin’s commentary echoes what Mark Martin said during the rain break of the Daytona 500 yesterday.

On X, Martin responded to an individual who said, “why does nascar and the rules package suck so much these days. Why do we continue to dumb the cars down to where anyone can drive them. Why does every car have to be identical. What happened to race what ya brought. Let the boys go!”

Martin answered, “It’s an attempt to get more people watching on TV. Putting on a show to connect with new fans. I haven’t been a supporter of some of it. I believe the racing needs to have some resemblance to what it always was. There is no simple solution.”

Another individual replied, “In layman’s terms I’ve always felt the car needs to be faster than the track can handle to have good racing. We don’t have that at Daytona and talladega any more and haven’t for years. The cars should be super hard to drive.”

Martin responded, “I’ve been saying this since the mid 90s But the advocacy for what we have today is it’s a hell of a show/wreck.”

Another individual also commented, “That’s the problem these days. The people running nascar want it to be entertainment first then a sport. Instead of a sport that puts the most bad ass product on track first which in turn creates natural entertainment. Too many bs gimmicks these days to manufacture drama.”

Martin answered, “I don’t disagree at all with your statement. If I was still racing I’d be happy to take a pay cut to get back to that. However you would lose more fans initially because it wouldn’t be as flashy and might take a long time to recover. I don’t think the industry is for that.”

Another shared, “It takes legitimacy out of the winner though and water it down. The racing was better when the cars were strung out a bit and the top drivers could make moves, not be stuck in a conga line.”

Martin concurred, “I agree with you but I also believe the internet would break from people complaining it was boring.”

What do you make of Hamlin’s comments about what the Daytona 500 has turned into?