"It is a grind": Denny Hamlin advocates for NASCAR dealing with All-Star conundrum in a team friendly way

Denny Hamlin has advocated for NASCAR keeping teams in consideration for race scheduling amid the ongoing All-Star race rumors. During an episode of the Actions Detrimental, Hamlin shared his take on Dover being potentially considered as an All-Star race venue for 2026.

This led to one of Hamlin's co-hosts asking the NASCAR veteran 'a crazy question'. He wondered if the governing body could simply turn North Wilkesboro into a points race and not have the All-Star race at all.

Denny Hamlin agreed with this suggestion, as he elaborated:

"Why are we so hung up on we need an All-Star race? Every league is struggling with their All-Star event currently. Ours is no exception to that. I'd be uneducated when it comes to what is the regular season average for a game and then what is your All-Star game? I feel like our All-Star is probably kind of on par with whatever a normal race would be and maybe that's better than the league average."

"But man, how about, why don't we just give the damn teams a week off? They are running us through the grinder. It is a grind trying to get to the racetrack every single weekend." [9:20]

Hamlin emphasized that he would 'definitely' enjoy another break and doesn't see the need of trying to force an All-Star race into the schedule.

Denny Hamlin makes a case for Dover not being the All-Star race host

As Denny Hamlin's co-host mentioned about Dover potentially being the next destination for the All-Star race, the JGR driver wondered if NASCAR is scrapping a points race altogether from the racetrack. He highlighted 'a great fan turnout' during the summer race earlier this year.

Hamlin spoke about the racetrack not having lights to host the All-Star race. But he then claimed that Marcus Smith, the SMI head, could put temporary lights and turn that into the main storyline, of Dover hosting its first night race.

"I'm just spitballing, but you just never know. I just hope there's no way they can be going from two races to none. No point races at Dover. Yeah, the fan turnout's been good there. I don't know why you would do that. And then you got to put in temporary lighting, I guess. I mean, surely won't run it in the middle of the day in July, right? You would think. Who knows? I mean, again, the 10th floor is just not, I don't know. Hopefully, they're not thinking this one all the way through, but this is not the best choice," Hamlin described. [8:20]

Denny Hamlin claimed that Dover is not an All-Star racetrack either. He explained that at Dover, the rubber on the racetrack tends to get widened out and then the cars make passes.

However, he remarked that it doesn't happen until 30-40 laps into a run. While an All-Star race, he claimed, is made up of short runs.

Because of this combination, Hamlin suggested there may not be much passing at an All-Star race at Dover.