Denny Hamlin brands Daytona 500 as “a f***ing crapshoot”  

Denny Hamlin was very critical about how the 2025 Daytona 500 played out, as the new cars killed the art of Superspeedway racing.

Denny Hamlin brands Daytona 500 as “a f***ing crapshoot”  

Denny Hamlin (David Crigger/Bristol Herald Courier via AP)

The 2025 NASCAR Cup season had a chaotic start at the Daytona International Speedway. The Daytona 500 featured multiple wrecks, including one just before the checkered flag as William Byron secured back-to-back race wins at the track. Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin was clearly disappointed with the pattern of wrecks at the season opener.

The three times Daytona 500 champion had the opportunity to win the race, first time in half a decade on Sunday, but got caught up in late wreck caused by Cole Custer. In his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin shared his feelings about how the art of racing in Superspeedway are gone now. The drivers are becoming more aggressive and unnecessary incidents are dictating the race results.

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Over time, we’ve used to run 200 miles an hour at Superspeedways, 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. Some of the greats of our sport 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.

Denny Hamlin said via Actions Detrimental.

Further talking about the point, Denny Hamlin shared his perspective of the race as the co-owner of 23XI Racing. He is disappointed with the money he spends for his drivers to filed fast cars getting wasted owing to wrecks, giving him a feeling that Daytona 500 is a f***ing crapshoot now.

I spend so much money at 23XI to ensure my team and my drivers have the best cars available to go out there and compete for a win. But it’s just such a f***ing crapshoot now.

Denny Hamlin added.

Denny Hamlin explains why Next-Gen cars are responsible for the racing issue

In the same podcast, Denny Hamlin shared his feelings about how the new generation of cars are the reason behind the poor Superspeedway race product, He pointed out that cars have become easy to driver, with extra grip and drag, making it harder to pass normally.

Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO)

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 are two by two, three by three, but ain’t nobody passing nobody. We’re out there just riding and saving fuel throughout the greater part of the race.

Denny Hamlin said.

The comments from Denny Hamlin highlights how the Next-Gen have made is harder for the drivers to keep racing clean. NASCAR has to step up and come up with some solid solution to make sure such situation doesn’t come up again.