Denny Hamlin admits ‘too many f**king NASCAR races’ are taking a toll on his mental health
Denny Hamlin was one of the vocal critics of the newly announced 2024 NASCAR schedule as well.
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Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO)
Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin has pointed out that his mental health has been affected by the long NASCAR Cup series schedule—Hamlin has been racing in the top tier since 2006 with JGR. He has started over 614 NASCAR Cup Series races, alongside part-time starts in the Xfinity and Truck Series races.
Since Hamlin started racing full-time, the Cup schedule has had 36 races. The season starts in mid-February and ends in early November. The actual break the drivers and crews get away from the sport is usually the month of December, as they have to complete media and sponsorship obligations ahead of the next season from the first week of January.
For Hamlin, who has been doing it for over one and a half decades, it’s taking a toll on him. The mid-one-week mid-season break and the one month off in post-season aren’t enough to get his mind over the pressure, anxiety, and frustrations he went through the previous year. Hamlin had advocated for cutting the season to a Maximum limit of 32 races.
“It is become abundantly clear to me we have too many f**king races. We’re trying to jam 38 races into what should be 32 at most…The schedule takes its toll on everyone. It’s taken a toll on my mental health, clearly. I’m unwell when I look at the schedule. I haven’t even got into the fact that they’ve added another road course and another superspeedway in the playoffs,” Hamlin said via Action Detrimental podcast.
In case you missed it: Ross Chastain blames his decision-making for Cup playoff elimination at ROVAL
Denny Hamin gives the craziest explanation of the length of a NASCAR season
The JGR driver, while discussing the stress of the big NASCAR schedule, also gives a crazy explanation for the casual race fans to understand the real extent of the racing schedule. He said the season is usually from “Valentine’s Day to the week before Thanksgiving.”
“I tell casual people, how long is our season? I say it’s usually from Valentine’s day to the week before Thanksgiving. WHAT?! ‘When do you have off?’ December. Because they start us right up with media first week of January,” Hamlin described.
Hamlin pointed out that he doesn’t expect NASCAR to change this grueling schedule as, at the end of the day, it’s a sport made for entertainment. Long-schedule gives content to broadcast, yielding more profit, and a business is all about money at the end of the day.
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Justin P Joy
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