Denny Hamlin believes NASCAR has too many road courses on Cup schedule, cites 'fake news'

This season, NASCAR scheduled six of 36 Cup Series races on road/street courses. Denny Hamlin believes six is too many, he said on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.

Hamlin made it clear he is not a fan of road courses. He said that NASCAR’s reasoning for adding more road courses to the schedule was “fake news.”

“I’m not a road course fan,” Hamlin said. “I still believe we have too many of them on the schedule. I think there was a big, giant push for them eight years ago, six years ago and NASCAR was like, ‘OK, if that’s what you want.’ The only reason people loved them is because we had green-white-checkered finishes, and people would get wiped out and it created this excitement. I just think it was fake news, and we added a bunch to the schedule.

“We did cut back maybe one this year but still, six is a lot considering we are NASCAR — we’re short track racing, we’re oval racing, full contact type racing.”

Denny Hamlin is in favor of NASCAR returning to downtown Chicago

In a different time, Watkins Glen International and Sonoma Raceway were the only road courses on the schedule. This year alone, NASCAR has taken its show to COTA, Mexico City and downtown Chicago. Meanwhile, a San Diego street course has been reported to be on the way.

This past Sunday was the third and perhaps final Chicago Street Race, though there are option years on the contract. Entering Sunday’s race, Hamlin had just one top 10 finish in 18 road course starts. Hamlin started last, and after 165 miles of racing, he fought his way to a fourth-place finish. Hamlin sees the value in the Chicago Street Race and would like for it to remain on the schedule in 2026.

“I don’t know, we’ll see where it goes,” Hamlin said. “I think this is one race that should stay. The others I can take them or leave them, but certainly believe this one is important to exposing new fans.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office is open to extending the contract with NASCAR. But there is one major condition: the date.

“Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is open to two more years of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race, but only after exploring the possibility of shifting the marquee event to a different date that does not pose the ‘challenges that July 4th weekend presents,’ a top mayoral aide said Monday,” Fran Spielman wrote in the Times. 

NASCAR has 90 days to trigger the two-year extension. We’ll see if NASCAR sees a world where both Chicago and San Diego can exist together on next year’s schedule.