In the aftermath of the 2024 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, veteran NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin revealed his frustrations during an appearance on the “Actions Detrimental” podcast. This year’s race, won by Kyle Larson with Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski also playing significant roles, turned into a battle that left many, including Hamlin, exasperated.
Hamlin pointed out that the race’s outcome was severely affected by successive cautions, particularly the final ones that pushed racers into a precarious fuel window, disrupting the flow and strategy for many leading contenders. He commented, as quoted by Essentially Sports:
“You’re one caution away from this thing going just as planned, and then we got one caution. But then the second one was like, now that puts us in a weird fuel window where we’re short. So we’re going to have to save.”
The real turning point came when Brad Keselowski had to relinquish his lead to Larson after a desperate bid to conserve fuel failed, leading to a second overtime finish induced by Ryan Preece’s spin-out due to a dry tank.
Explaining the broader ramifications, Hamlin noted:
“But others that were in the back of the pack like the #5 because he had his issue with 90 to go or something like that. He had fuel. So he then just kind of topped off and then it just, it f***** everything up. It really did. And so we spent the whole last run having to save. And so it’s frustrating because it was very similar to like the superspeedway races that we have had all year.”
Hamlin’s frustration stems from a recurring theme in recent NASCAR races where fuel management often overshadows outright racing skills.
“If the race is 160 laps… I think I ran hard 25 of those laps. So it’s just I’m so tired of running fuel mileage races where we’re all running half-throttle.”
“I wish we could do something about it,” lamented Denny. “But it’s like, I don’t know it it helps you sometimes, it hurts you sometimes. But I just think for the racing’s sake man, do we really want NBC to have to sit here and explain all these different things and fuel and all? It’s like don’t you just want to see us out there racing…? Well, he’s doing a great job explaining what’s happening, but can we stop that from happening somehow where it’s like fuel mileage races?”
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