Denny Hamlin could be treading on thin ice. He had already been facing backlash for agreeing with Travis Rockhold to include only Cup drivers in the HoF selection, but his recent comments might spark more controversy as he doubles down on his words with reasoning.

Denny Hamlin says emotions drive selections

“I believe that most of the people that have adamant arguments for the lower series guys, they have an emotional connection to those people.”

The argument has heated up quite a bit, with the fans arguing that drivers from other series, including the O’Reilly Auto Parts and the Truck Series, also deserve to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. While it is understandable that personal bias might sometimes frame some of the fans’ opinions, Hamlin seems to be going all out with his.

He argued that most of the casual NASCAR watchers don’t even know the names of most drivers in the other series, and they only relate to some of the legendary Cup drivers.

“Go ask anyone, anyone that is a casual…they’re not watching. Do they know that there’s like, six series of NASCAR? No. They know of Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and Richard Petty. That’s Sunday.”

“It’s just my opinion, is that there’s steps to this, right? There’s steps to your accomplishment in the sport,” he argued further on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

Hamlin claimed that the drivers only get into the Cup Series after following a certain hierarchy of racing, which includes winning championships at the grassroots level, which is then followed by regional racing, NOAPS, and then the Cup Series. So, he argued that if the drivers who are inducted into the Hall of Fame are the strongest performers, why not pick them exclusively from the Cup Series instead of including all other series as well?

However, there have been quite a few drivers in history who have managed to perform extremely well in these tiers as well, be it the NOAPS or the Truck Series. The only thing that separates those drivers from the Cup drivers (apart from their age) seems to be the total experience of racing. Their skills, however, could be put on a similar level. But Hamlin also recently claimed that this was a thing of the past.

Is Hamlin contradicting himself?

Denny Hamlin remains fairly active on social media. Earlier, when Kenny Wallace posted the video on Rockhold’s comments, Hamlin mentioned that he agreed with him on this. But there was quite an interesting aspect.

One of the fans, replying to him, mentioned that if he feels that Ray Hendrick, a former driver who was inducted to the Hall of Fame this year posthumously, did not deserve to be on the list, either, considering his lack of participation in the Cup Series. Hamlin penned down quite an interesting reply.

“Definitely not saying that. I actually think the farther back in time you go, the less the gap is between top level and grass roots. Today the gap is too large between lets say Modifieds and Cup,” he wrote.

While it is understandable that back in the day, the technological gap between all these tiers of racing was much smaller, so being in a second-tier car, comparable to today’s NOAPS car, wouldn’t have made much of a difference from a Cup Series car. However, many still argue that talent should be recognized regardless.

To some extent, it does make sense. There have been far too many drivers who have performed extremely well in those series and haven’t taken up full-time runs in the Cup Series. As mentioned, the biggest differentiating aspect today seems to be age, but again, young drivers like Carson Hocevar, who compete better than most of the grid, are a prime example of this.

The topic remains open for discussion. While it is a hot take, Denny Hamlin seems to be adamant about it. He has been widely outspoken about this, and although fans shouldn’t worry about NASCAR changing the rules anytime, it does open up the potential for an interesting insight into the sport’s rules.