Usually, wrecking isn’t on the list of things NASCAR drivers wish to be part of while at the track. But, some understand that it does make for a slightly more entertaining race. Denny Hamlin said the fans got quite the show at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Impending weather, aggressive racing and a few wrecks made for an entertaining event in the Quaker State 400 over the weekend — even if it was called off early. In his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said he had a front-row seat to most of the action.
And that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
“Atlanta, I thought was a really exciting race to watch from my seat. I was the guy who had a view of just about every wreck that was in the field,” Hamlin said. “I hate to say it, but if you’ve got a view of every wreck, you’re probably not running up front. You’re probably in the back, so all the wrecks happen in front of you.”
Although it wasn’t the strongest race for Hamlin — finishing 14th — he said it was still an enjoyable race.
“It was fun. I thought the race was entertaining,” he said. “We had some lead changes, the track got better as the race went on. I think that we were in for a fantastic finish, it just started heating up when the rain came.”
Denny Hamlin says NASCAR missed out on fantastic finish
Because of the rainy conditions, NASCAR had to cut another race short. And it’s too bad, too. Hamlin said that he thought the Quaker State 400 was heading for an awesome finish.
He explained what factored into the race heating up as the rain approached.
a lot of the heating up came from a couple different factors,” Hamlin said. “One was we knew the rain was coming. So, everyone got told pedal to the metal, get to the front. The other was the track started cooling off, the tires started adhering to the track a little bit better, and everyone’s car started getting more comfortable.”
Hamlin said that the cooler weather allowed the track to gain grip. And when cars weren’t sliding all over the place, it made for more entertaining and competitive driving.
“As it cooled off and as the track started to lay rubber, it started to get more grippy. And the grippier it got, the more we were able to be aggressive running side-by-side, two- and three-wide,” he said.
Unfortunately, NASCAR couldn’t get the entire race in. William Byron was the winner, getting his fourth victory of the Cup Series regular season.