Denny Hamlin has never been shy about voicing his frustrations, and last year’s Martinsville race was no exception. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran, a three-time winner at the track, left the race fuming over NASCAR’s short-track product. Despite what many considered an improvement over previous Next Gen-era races at the Virginia paperclip, Hamlin wasn’t convinced.
“We can’t just continue to ignore the short tracks,” Hamlin ranted on his podcast, Actions Detrimental after the Cook Out 400 in April last year. He argued that NASCAR’s push for parity had come at the cost of exciting racing. “No one is going to be able to pass. You Twitter trolls that come at me and say, ‘Well, William Byron passed,’ it took him 400 F—— laps.” His frustration was clear—Martinsville, once a beating heart of NASCAR’s short track package, had become a follow-the-leader affair.
NASCAR had been tweaking its short-track package for years, yet the racing remained stagnant. Hamlin pushed for a major overhaul, suggesting drastic changes in horsepower and tire degradation. Now, after a year, NASCAR is a week away from this year’s showdown at Martinsville, but the debate rages on. NASCAR has introduced the softer “option” tire, and drivers remain divided. And amid all the debate, Chase Elliott has delivered a no-nonsense verdict on the issue.
Notably, short tracks were once NASCAR’s bread and butter, delivering high-intensity, door-to-door battles. But in the Next Gen era, they have struggled. The tightly regulated cars and minimal tire wear have made passing difficult, leading to races where track position outweighs raw speed. The Next-Gen races at Martinsville have seen long spells of drivers holding onto the lead until a caution flag or pit strategy flipped things around, with minimal scope of passing. To counter this, NASCAR has worked with Goodyear to develop an option tire—one that wears faster and creates tire strategy-driven racing.
Despite the efforts, NASCAR garages remain divided. The latest to weigh on this debate is seven-time Most Popular Driver and 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott. When asked about the changes ahead of Martinsville, Elliott admitted, “It seems like it’s better, for sure. And it seems like it’s large in part due to the tire. Maybe we’re onto something there.” However, when asked about the debate over using option tires for the entire race, Elliott was blunt. “I don’t care,” he said.
His dismissive response was a stark contrast to some veteran drivers like Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. They want NASCAR to come up with a solution in which faster car wins. Hamlin had admitted it on multiple occasions. “I don’t want options for tires. It’s just another way that the best car won’t win,” Hamlin once said. But unlike his comments, NASCAR’s recent efforts at Phoenix Raceway had somehow paid off.
At Phoenix, Goodyear’s softer compound created a thrilling race with constant movement through the field. Drivers like Ryan Preece charged from 33rd to 10th in just 11 laps. Christopher Bell’s late-race strategy won him the race by just 0.049 seconds over Hamlin. For some, the option tire is a breakthrough. Daniel Suarez praised the new tire after the Richmond race in 2024, saying, “If NASCAR and the fans didn’t like it, I don’t know what they would like because they were amazing.”
NASCAR garage divided over the tire issue!
Despite the results, the introduction of the option tire has split the NASCAR community in half. Drivers like Chase Elliott see it as a step forward, while others believe it’s just a temporary fix. Denny Hamlin is not the only one who feels racing hasn’t improved. Two-time cup series champion Kyle Busch shares Hamlin’s skepticism. Ahead of the Homestead-Miami race, The Rowdy claimed that racing is no better at short tracks.
“No, the racing has definitely not gotten better with the next-gen at short tracks. Why that is, I don’t know. We’ve tried different aero packages, and we’ve tried different tires. I think it’s just the similarity in all the parts and pieces and everybody is the same. So, when everybody figures out what the best way is to skin the cat, there’s only one way to skin the cat,” Busch told Frontstrech. He argued that parity has made passing harder, and even with the new tires, the best teams still dominate.
Meanwhile, younger drivers and mid-pack teams see the tire as a chance to shake things up. “These tires are a lot of fun,” said Zane Smith, who secured a top-10 finish at Phoenix. The divide is clear: Some embrace the challenge, while others see it as NASCAR tinkering too much with tradition. With Martinsville approaching, all eyes will be on how the option tire performs. Will it create another Phoenix-style thriller? Or will it prove to be just another failed experiment? Let us know in the comments!
The post “I Don’t Care”- Chase Elliott Goes Against Denny Hamlin’s Only Short-Track Disdain With Bold Claim appeared first on EssentiallySports.
