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“Please the Court” – Denny Hamlin Takes the Case of NASCAR Fans After SMI President Marcus Smith Comments on the “Awful” All Star Race

Published 05/24/2022, 9:15 AM EDT

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Perhaps Marcus Smith, the President of Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) didn’t watch the recent All-Star Race at the Texas Motor Speedway. Otherwise, he’d surely have anticipated the backlash before his words left his mind. The backlash was led by Denny Hamlin and extended to a train of NASCAR fans.

Smith said in a recent interview, “When we had it in Charlotte, we had some detractors who would always say ‘Why is it in Charlotte?’… We move it and people say ‘Let’s put it back in Charlotte.’ I’ve found nobody likes change and nobody likes anything to stay the same … You can’t make everybody happy.”

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“There’s just some people out there who like to complain more often than anything. … If you talk to the fans who were there, they had a great time.”

This led to Joe Gibbs Racing driver and 23XI Racing co-owner, Denny Hamlin subtly taking a jibe at Smith and his comments. This was then followed by a slew of criticism of the race venue from the fans.

Denny Hamlin had more reasons to be mad at NASCAR for

After the All-Star race that ended in quite some controversy thanks to a questionable call, Denny Hamlin let loose on his frustrations with the events that he felt should’ve led to a black flag.

“This isn’t a Denny Hamlin judgement call,” he said. “I’m just saying, ‘Whatever the rule is, let’s be consistent and play by the rules.’ It’s unfortunate because he made a mistake.”

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He argued that Blaney should’ve won the race the first time as he was 100 yards away from the win, that “many cars have not won races” because of a mistake at the end, and that “those things happen.”

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The #11 driver added that he is confused about whether or not it was a “moral problem” they had, to not cost him the win so they conveniently threw the caution at the end.

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“I think they just had a moral dilemma instead of just playing by the rules like they’re supposed to.”

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Written by:

Shaharyar Khan Chauhan

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Shaharyar is an F1 & NASCAR writer at EssentiallySports. A graduate in Journalism from Amity University, he has been a passionate follower of motorsports for a better part of the decade. A Max Verstappen and Ferrari supporter, he dreams of a pairing of the two in future.
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Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh