Denny Hamlin provided some interesting insight into why NASCAR didn’t use mud flaps or windshield wipers at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
With wet weather tires on hand, it only would’ve made more sense to have windshield wipers and mud flaps handy in Loudon, so the Cup Series could run through some of the rain that came through the track.
However, Hamlin explained that while they may be called wet weather tires, they really aren’t made for running in heavy rainfall, the likes of what we saw when the red flag came out in Loudon on Sunday afternoon.
“Because we still don’t want to race in the rain,” Hamlin answered, via the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I just think that, you know, these are — while they’re called wet weather tires, they’re more damp condition tires, you know, which is not as sexy as a name. It’s just, the wet weather — I’m telling you, it’d be too dangerous around that track.
“We were — to start the race, I mean, we had two cars spin out, by the way, under caution, before we even went. So yeah, I mean, I just think that it was probably the right time — when we went, it was probably the right time. But it was treacherous, I’m telling you, for five, six laps, before the tires — before the cars got enough heat in the track to start to create dry spots.”
While mud flaps and windshield wipers may be good for when rain rolls through a road course for the Cup Series, NASCAR simply isn’t ready to break them out for an oval. Perhaps in the future we’ll be, but that might be long after Denny Hamlin’s time in the series, and the No. 11 wheelman recognizes that.
Denny Hamlin expected NASCAR to end race early due to rain at New Hampshire
Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin was doing everything he could to lead the Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before the rain came in. While speaking about Sunday’s race on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin expected NASCAR to end the race due to the rain that moved in the area.
“We definitely knew that rain was imminent,” Hamlin said. “[Chris Gabehart] told me that it was going to come around lap 245-250 if things stayed green. Once Stage 2 ended and we won Stage 2, he said, ‘Alright, you’re going to be back in traffic let’s just say eighth or 10th. What are you going to need?’ I said ‘I think I need to be freed up a little bit.’ He’s like ‘Just so you know, you got about 50 laps to do this.’
“And then we had another quick caution. It was like I don’t know probably the third Kyle Busch caution maybe or something like that. …But then that number just keeps going down.” Hamlin then said that he was racing to lap 215 because of the cautions that were called by NASCAR. He also said that Gabehart told him that he could smell the rain.
“At the time we were racing really really hard for the race, win, and you could see drops on the windshield,” Hamlin explained. “It’s like ‘Oh no.’ You knew it was coming really quickly, which is why you saw us being all so aggressive those 10 laps or so that we got to race after Stage 2.”
On3’s Brian Jones contributed to this article.
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