NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin has stated that only a “conspiracy” can end Shane van Gisbergen’s dominance on road and street courses. The statement arrives after van Gisbergen’s recent victory at Watkins Glen International.
The 36-year-old driver has proven that his performance remains unmatched, as he secured four consecutive race wins in his rookie Cup year, joining Chase Elliott and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon as the only drivers who won four road or street courses in a row.
His win at Watkins Glen backs his recent multi-year contract extension with his team, Trackhouse Racing. Given his winning spree, Hamlin noted that van Gisbergen has only failed to win a race when he was taken out by another car as a result of an error. He jokingly stated on his Actions Detrimental podcast that only a conspiracy can prevent van Gisbergen from winning. He said:
“There’s going to be a race that something happens that’s gonna take him out. Like, he got taken out of Chicago. Remember, in the wet somebody made a mistake.
“Like, he definitely is able to be vulnerable to someone else making a mistake. He’s not going to make it on his own. It’s going to be into Turn 1. Somebody ping-pongs into someone else, and it knocks him into Shane after he just pitted. Like, that’s what we need. We need a conspiracy.”
Hamlin also took aim at NASCAR in the podcast for making “horrible” business decisions that reportedly backfired, such as reducing the horsepower on the Next Gen car, which has allegedly made overtaking more difficult. He said:
“I think that we have a fundamental car problem. It is no doubt a problem. Everyone that has ever driven it has said it’s a problem. I believe that the Next Gen car is reaching hate levels of the COT (Car of Tomorrow) with the wing. From fans — I think they’re starting to dislike this car as much as the drivers that have to drive it.
“We’ve just steadily progressed our way back and back and back and back and taken horsepower away more and more and more. These are 10th floor decisions and let’s just say us drivers are on the third floor. No business is immune to bad decisions. I think that the NASCAR business has made some horrible decisions over the last given amount of time and eventually, it catches up.”
Hamlin added that NASCAR is going to have to pay for those bad decisions. He said:
“You can’t just say, ‘This is the direction I wanna go.’ ‘Well, why?’ ‘Well, this is the direction I wanna go,’ and not eventually have to pay for that. You’re going to have to pay for your bad decisions at some point. And this could be said for lots of things that have happened in those offices. We’ll just see how it goes.”
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