NASCAR’s latest decision regarding Next Gen car has not gone well with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin is one of the most vocal drivers in the Cup Series and he doesn’t back away from criticizing even the NASCAR governing body if needed. The No. 11 driver’s recent attack on the governing body was because he believed that they were giving an unfair advantage to Hendrick Motorsports.
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To be more precise, NASCAR decided to partner with HMS to bring modified Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023. Speaking to reporters, Hamlin made it clear that the decision is not right for him, especially since HMS are the most successful team until now in the Next Gen setup.
“Finding out through a press conference is not OK,” Hamlin said. “We have too many people in place. NASCAR has too many executives for that to slip through the cracks. Not that that slipped through the cracks, but where is the transparency of it?
“And then, on the other side, there certainly is performance advantages that every team is concerned with. Short of us being allowed to have the same track time, I don’t see any way possible that they will not have an advantage. That’s a team that has already won more races than anybody else this season with the Next Gen. I think from my standpoint the decision was made and they’ll kind of figure out the details later.”
Just a couple of weeks ago, Hamlin criticized NASCAR for their poor communication, stating that NASCAR needs to collaborate more with the drivers regarding the safety issues in the Next Gen car. He also backed Rodney Childers who hit out at NASCAR following their lack of communication regarding a new requirement of rain flaps for Cup cars on rainy road courses, which they had to learn from Fox’s Bob Pockrass instead of NASCAR.