Last Sunday, Austin Dillon put on a spectacular race. The Richard Childress Racing driver drove under the lights, setting fire to a Saturday night event at Richmond Raceway. He led for 107 laps in the No. 3 Chevrolet for the first time since Dale Earnhardt did the same en route to his 1988 Daytona 500 victory. Yet although the hype around this race was immense, with fans cheering on their favorite racers, the resulting stats do not match the excitement. But Denny Hamlin is not bothered.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was one of the drivers whom Austin Dillon dumped on the final lap of last year’s race. This year, Denny Hamlin got into another melee spun by another rival, while Dillon won the race. Yet in terms of race popularity, Hamlin believes there is another reason for the decline, rather than Dillon winning on a Saturday.
Denny Hamlin spars with NASCAR insider
Well, Jeff Gluck and Denny Hamlin engaged in an interview for The Athletic just a week ago. However, they have disagreed over topics before. When NASCAR proposed a ‘run what you brung’ rules package for the All-Star Race, Gluck chided drivers for rejecting it. Then, Hamlin retorted by pointing out the $2 million costs involved for a race that rewards just $1 million. Similarly, the two NASCAR entities clashed again recently, this time over NASCAR’s Saturday event in Richmond. According to Adam Stern, USA Network “earned a 0.75 rating and 1.4 million viewers” for the 2025 Cook Out 400. The 2024 event was on a Sunday, and it got a “1.2 rating and 2.2 million.”
Jeff Gluck brought up this disparity on X, underlining the better prospects of racing on Sunday. He wrote, “Richmond fans love seeing races there on Saturday night, but TV viewers still prefer Sundays. Richmond got 1.39 million viewers on Saturday night, down 37% from last year’s Richmond race (2.22 million), which was on a Sunday night.” But then, Denny Hamlin questioned TV viewership scaling up in just one day. That is because the 2024 Richmond race saw an 8.6% decline in viewership compared to 2023’s 2.43 million viewers. He asked Gluck, “Are we naïve enough to think a million more tune in 24 hours later?”
Are we naïve enough to think a million more tune in 24 hours later?
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 20, 2025
Then Jeff Gluck defended his stance, bringing up stats from the Iowa race. “I think so, yeah. Iowa got 2.2 million earlier this month, and that wasn’t even a night race. Sundays make a huge difference.” However, Denny Hamlin then harped on his real point of view, which is that just shifting from Saturday to Sunday may not raise TV ratings. Bigger issues will stay anyway – like the Next-Gen car’s passing problems, low horsepower, or the playoff format. Hamlin said, “I was talking about Sunday…Its my concern as well, and I think the problem is much bigger than hitting the exact perfect time window every week.”
Denny Hamlin is more bothered about NASCAR’s glaring problems than Richmond’s Saturday viewership fall. At the same time, however, he believes in the sport’s meritorious value.
Assigning himself more responsibility
In the age of the Next-Gen, drivers complain of loss of flexibility. With aerodynamic problems and dirty air affecting their pace, most NASCAR drivers cannot pass easily. The evidence is everywhere – when Brad Keselowski led for 68 laps in Iowa and still came up short of the victory. Or when Shane van Gisbergen finished a jaw-dropping 11.116 seconds over runner-up Chris Buescher. Despite these glaring instances of the Next-Gen car’s faults, Denny Hamlin still believes in a driver’s merit. In his recent interview with Jeff Gluck, Hamlin initially assigned 30% luck to a racer’s chances for a championship. However, he revised his statement and cut it down to 10%.
Denny Hamlin explained his revised note to Jeff Gluck about clinching a Cup Series championship. He said, “I lowered luck because it’s not a factor in winning as much as being good is. It is still a factor in some wins, but great drivers have more opportunities to win because of their skill level. Team does matter, but with the Next Gen, you can’t build the difference in cars like you used to. The driver is the one who sends the team in a direction to make the cars fast, thus being the most important.”
Although the merit of a title makes sense to Denny Hamlin, the TV viewership logic does not. Unless NASCAR takes steps towards appeasing fans’ demands, it may not improve soon.
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