Denny Hamlin sees no excitement in NASCAR turning North Wilkesboro into a points race: "It's in your head"

Denny Hamlin shared his take on whether North Wilkesboro Speedway should be a points race in the future. The iconic racetrack, which got revived in 2023, has been the stop for the All-Star race on the calendar for the last three seasons.

However, this year, a big talking point in the buildup of the exhibition race was whether NWS should become a points race instead of the All-Star. Denny Hamlin also commented on this during his Actions Detrimental podcast.

The idea of Wilkesboro becoming a points race with 40 racecars potentially making the racing 'more compelling' was raised in front of Hamlin. However, the veteran NASCAR driver said that making it a points race might not necessarily end up producing good racing because the problem lies elsewhere.

"I think that going to night hurts the racing. I think that there's no question about that. It just levels the field off too much. There's less tire fall off. I think it needs to be like hot hot. Or we need to go back to the softer left side tire than what we had here last year," Hamlin said.

Denny Hamlin further claimed that from 'a hype standpoint', NASCAR was more likely to get more traction from an All-Star weekend rather than a points race.

"It doesn't make it a bigger event because you decide to pay points. It's in your head. There's nothing that makes it more exciting. I think it's a thought that it's getting embedded in people's brain, but you're not going to see much anything different," he claimed.

Hamlin added that having all the cars out on the track for 400 laps could mean a decrease in intensity. With that said, he expressed his interest in turning NWS into a points race if it meant that an existing track was being taken off the schedule.

Denny Hamlin made it clear that he was not in favor of NASCAR adding more tracks.

Denny Hamlin claims NASCAR has 'watered down' the importance of everything

Further sharing his thoughts on the subject of the All-Star race, Denny Hamlin touched upon the challenges other sports also face with an All-Star event. He raised the point that other sports also faced the hurdle in making their event more compelling.

Hamlin talked about how NASCAR has 'watered down' many aspects of the sport. He claimed that having 23 cars in the race made it 'too many' in an All-Star event.

"We've watered down the importance of everything. Nothing is elite anymore. It's come one, come all. Here's your participation medals," Hamlin said.

After Hamlin's comments, the show's co-host Jared Allen suggested that NASCAR needed to 'delete' the open race. However, Denny Hamlin defended the event, saying the open race was fine.

However, as per Hamlin, the problem lies with how easy it was for anyone to make it into the All-Star race. In fact, he threw shade at NASCAR, wondering when the time would come that a driver would be able to compete in the All-Star race based on their social media followers.