Denny Hamlin’s fall from pole position at Nashville right after the race started was a matter of worry for the entire #11 team, but impressively, he managed to gain all the spots back and clinched his second points-paying win of the season. But now that he thinks about it, perhaps starting from the back and winning a race should have been a little more rewarding than just the 55 points, and he has an idea, perhaps one that could skyrocket the TV ratings.

The conversation started with Dale Jr. asking whether Hamlin would give up his pole position voluntarily for a price. Specifically, whether doubling the race purse would be enough of a carrot. Hamlin shot lower than Dale Jr. expected, prompting the follow-up: “What if you said, ‘Hey, instead of a million, you’re two million dollars to start last on the field’?” That further urged Hamlin to suggest something better.

“You should ask the pole winner that every single week and say, you know, you get 10 extra points, 15 extra points or something, because what a storyline, right?”

He knows he isn’t making a big ask, especially after Nashville, which taught him how hard the execution really is. He jumped the start from pole position, took a drive-through penalty to the back of a 38-car field, still led a race-high 57 laps, outraced Christopher Bell over the final four laps after a last restart, and won the Cracker Barrel 400 by 0.115 seconds. That almost makes it sound easy until you zoom in.

“It’s like, can that person come from the dead last and, I know it seemed like easy. Well, we did it, right? We came from last to come back. But we had to have shit work out just right. I mean, cautions came at the right time, I got the restarts that I needed to at the right time. Our strategy flipped probably five to seven cars that I never had to pass. Never even saw them all day, just because I never had to go through them. So, things worked out. And so, it’s very, very against the odds for it to happen,” Hamlin added, speaking on the Dale Jr. Download podcast.

The idea isn’t truly as radical as it sounds, though, but NASCAR could still benefit from paying attention to it. We know the kind of measurable impact pole positions can have on TV ratings.

Think back to the 2013 season when the Daytona 500 posted its strongest TV ratings since 2008, driven largely by the buildup surrounding Danica Patrick’s history-making pole position, as she became the first woman to start a Sprint Cup race from pole. Ratings were up 91% in Chicago, 64% in San Francisco, 60% in Los Angeles, 59% in Boston, and 43% in New York.

The pole generated those numbers because of the question Patrick’s starting position asked before the race even began. That pre-race tension around questions like will she do it, can she hold, how long will she last, is exactly the kind of audience hook that converts casual viewers. Hamlin wishes for the executives to target that very tension.

The 2026 season has also already proven, and repeatedly so, that storyline is what makes or breaks those Sunday afternoons. The TV ratings were up 11% at Daytona, down at Atlanta, COTA, Darlington, Martinsville, and Bristol, then surging 26% at Kansas before easing back at Talladega. And the Kansas number, 2.926 million on Fox, up 26% from the comparable 2025 event and the most-watched spring race at the track since 2016, did not happen “just because”.

The ARCA Talladega numbers told a similar story. The Alabama Manufactured Housing 200 averaged 446,000 viewers on FS1, a 41% increase from the prior year, and the surge was almost impossible to discuss without mentioning Cleetus McFarland. Fans who had never watched an ARCA race suddenly had a reason to care.

Nashville itself bore it out on the night in question. The Cracker Barrel 400 averaged 2.01 million viewers on Prime Video and earned a 0.79 household rating with 1.7 million average viewers per minute despite an 80-minute rain delay that pushed the race well past midnight Eastern. The broadcast peaked at 2.32 million viewers, up 5% on last year’s peak, in the closing laps as Hamlin ran down Christopher Bell. Prime, notably, presented the final 80 laps without commercial interruption.

That said, when TJ Majors pushed Hamlin on what incentive he would personally take between points and money, Hamlin did not take a minute to answer.

“Points. Points, definitely. Definitely points.”

Hamlin’s suggestion offers a roadmap for NASCAR but also hints at what occupies the #11’s mind these days, as retirement talks grow louder. In a season where Hamlin is chasing something that has slipped through his fingers more times than he cares to count, points mean everything.

Is Denny Hamlin’s title guaranteed this year after the 2025 loss?

Denny Hamlin led 208 laps at Phoenix Raceway in the Championship Race, was three laps from his first title when William Byron blew a tire and hit the wall to bring out a late caution. Kyle Larson, who had not led a single lap all day, took two tires on the overtime restart, while Hamlin took four.

Thanks to that, Larson restarted fifth, and Hamlin came out tenth. There were two laps to make up nine positions, but he couldn’t do it. So, Larson finished third to claim his second Cup Series title, as Hamlin finished sixth.

It was the sixth time Hamlin had come close without closing, including a runner-up to Jimmie Johnson in 2010 and four Championship 4 appearances under the elimination format. But 2026 now gives him the clearest structural shot he has had in years.

After Nashville, Hamlin sits 97 points behind Tyler Reddick, who leads the standings after five wins this season. Ryan Blaney is third, a further 77 points back. The Chase reset in September will compress those margins, and the format rewards exactly the kind of consistent excellence the No. 11 team has been putting forth.

Considering how the format rewards that kind of accumulation, this could finally be the season Denny Hamlin converts his absurd win total into the one trophy that still eludes him. And if NASCAR did ever adopt what he proposed on the Dale Jr. Download, well, there is not a driver in the field who would take that bet more willingly, or execute it more coldly, than the man who already proved it possible at Nashville on a Sunday night.