Denny Hamlin: NASCAR fans are 'naturally complainers'

Denny Hamlin heard the complaints from NASCAR fans after Dover, and he says it’s more of a reflection on fans of the sport than the racing on the track.

Of course, Hamlin was the victor of the Wurth 400 on Sunday, which left a sour taste in some fans’ mouths. Still, the No. 11 wheelman believes the action on the track wasn’t as bad as many made it out to be, as he explained on the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“I think we’re just naturally complainers,” Hamlin said, regarding NASCAR fans, drivers and media alike. “I mean, that’s that’s what we do. It’s most of the time, if you look on Twitter, that’s what most people do, is complain, and I do it as well. Right? It’s because you want — now, everyone has the reason for complaining. Maybe it’s because I beat your favorite driver. Maybe it’s because the result wasn’t what you were hoping for, which is a side-by-side, photo finish at Dover. Like, those things just don’t happen that often.

“If you look at historically some Dover races, usually we’ve got like nine cars on the can lead lap and an eight second lead. I mean, I remember wrecking at Dover once, being back at my house by the second half of the race, and watching Kyle Busch just, I mean, stomp the field, and be like, only one of six cars on the lead lap. Like legit, not because of sequences or anything, but he would lap all the way up to there. So I’m not sure what we hoped for.”

While Hamlin relented that he wishes there were some changes to the racing at Dover, he believes if the racing isn’t perfect, you’re going to hear complaints no matter what.

“Do I wish that there was more lap time variance through the tire or whatever? Absolutely,” Hamlin added. “You know, if you look at, that last run was 50, 60 laps. We only dropped off one second. I mean, that’s not a whole lot, to be honest with you. I ran a 30, or a 23-teen when I was out front, and I finished the race running 20. So I feel like, once they all get — the tires fall off, but then they plateau. We’ve got to get them to stop plateauing. So the tire, it gets to a certain heat and then it falls off, and then it stops wearing, so then it’s all just a heat thing, and then we all run the same lap times. So whatever we can do to get that ramped, and keep going. I think we’ll see that at North Wilkesboro, by the way. We’re gonna see tires that do continue to fall off versus plateauing.

“So that’s, it’s just what we got for right now, and we can complain, and we will continue to complain on here about things that we feel like need to be better, but that’s just humans natural instinct, is to want to pick apart something, because it’s not perfect.”

At the least, Denny Hamlin can listen to complaints while holding another trophy. The No. 11 is on a mission this season, and last weekend’s trip to Dover was no different.