The NASCAR Cup Series race at the Phoenix Raceway was one of the most anticipated ones this season due to the new aero package developed to improve short-track racing. Unfortunately, fans were not happy with what they saw, as there was not much difference in the racing until tire wear started to kick in. It didn’t take them long to trash the new package, but Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin stood with NASCAR on this matter as he defended the upgrade.

To improve short-track racing, the organizers decided to drastically reduce the size of the floor to reduce downforce and increase the size of the splitter by an inch so that cars don’t lose grip. By no means was this going to be a permanent solution to the issues NASCAR has been facing in this format of racing, but for a lot of the drivers, it felt different.

Denny Hamlin lays out a challenge for Goodyear ahead of Bristol

Denny Hamlin was one of the drivers who acknowledged the change in the feel of the car but believes that there is still a lot of work left to be done. The JGR No. 11 did not go in with a lot of expectations, which is probably why he was not too disappointed. Ahead of the race, he said to the media that things were not going to be worse than they were and re-iterated that point in a recent episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

Though that’s not all. The new aero package is its own thing, but tires are just as important as aerodynamics for a race car to run well, and the 43-year-old challenged Goodyear to get a tire that wore out slower than the one at Phoenix. Denny Hamlin acknowledged that the tire maker had done a good job of getting a product that was a lot better than what they had previously. It will be interesting to see if Goodyear takes his advice.

“I’m just not ready to sh*t all over it. It’s definitely not worse. To me, it doesn’t matter who says what, it’s not worse. Was it dramatically better? No. We still got some work to do. I would love to challenge Goodyear and say okay, what was the tire wear? We had a 100-lap run, show us some tire wear. I think it definitely was improved from the previous tire that we had. Can you push it more? Give us a little more because if you create that variability of running really fast and then running really slow cause the tires start to wear out, that’s when you’re gonna see tons of overtaking,” he said.

While he did not say anything negative about the aero package, Hamlin believes that a lot of NASCAR’s problems could be easily solved if they just increased the horsepower, and it would not even cost anything extra.

Joe Gibbs Racing star reveals a cost-effective method of improving racing

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As per a report in Sportsnaut, the JGR star team owner has seen the engine bill remain the same for years, regardless of whether it was 900 hp or the current 670 hp. The Next-Gen cars are the draggiest that NASCAR has ever come out with due to their weight, so without high horsepower, short tracks would be a menace to drive on, and that’s exactly what’s happened. Hamlin said that the horsepower could be raised to 750 hp without causing any durability issues or cost issues, and it would be a massive fix.

“I think any horsepower I think you can add will make the racing better. It is hard to pass because we are all in the gas so much. You have to get us out of the gas whether through the tire or the horsepower. That combination is what makes passing so difficult,” he said, as per the report. “You just call up Doug Yates (at Ford) and TRD and say we are going to go back to our old 750 plate – it can be before next weekend, and they said it wouldn’t change any of our durability we have. It can be done with one phone call with no additional money.”

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NASCAR’s aversion to doing so has stumped the 3-time Daytona 500 winner, who has been a long-time supporter of the higher horsepower along with almost all of his fellow Cup Series racers. The organizers will eventually increase it, given the amount of pressure that teams are putting on it. The question is, when?