"I'm down": Denny Hamlin challenged by Mamba Smith for debate following Daytona snub

Mamba Smith recently challenged Denny Hamlin to a discussion on either of their podcasts regarding the highly debated NASCAR Cup Series playoff system. Smith, who is the co-host of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, had expressed his views in defense of the divisive playoff system in the sport.

Hamlin had spoken against Smith's opinion on his podcast, Actions Detrimental. More recently, during the Daytona driver intros, Mamba Smith, NASCAR's Chief Hype Officer, snubbed a handshake from Denny Hamlin and later reacted to the video of the same with a smiley face emoji.

After the race, Hamlin suggested that more people disagreed with Smith's take as he reacted to the video with:

"You're so cool, bro. Don't let the ratios get to you."

While Kevin Harvick wondered if Smith and Denny Hamlin were having a feud, the show's co-host said:

"So, here's the thing. This all started because last week I said that, it was about the tweet that I said crowning the champion. It's about crowning the best team, not the best driver. Denny disagreed and then on Actions Detrimental, he brought it up and kind of drugged me a little bit. I heard you. For the older people that don't know he was kind of talking some sh*t and acting like he didn't know who I was. I heard you, bro. So, let's do this. You can come right here on Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast and we can debate or I can come to you. What do you want to do? The people I've seen some people in in Twitter. They want to see it. No, we want to see it. I'm down." [54:00]

Harvick offered that he'll loan Smith the set of Happy Hour and give him a two-chair setup. But Smith said he wanted Harvick to be there.

However, Harvick said he wants to watch. Smith further added that wherever Hamlin wants to have the discussion and talk about it, he's ready, and he won't back down. He claimed he won't apologize for being right.

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Denny Hamlin claimed Mamba Smith's point holds little to no weight

On his X account, Mamba Smith had written that in NASCAR, the point isn't to crown the best driver. According to him, the point is to crown the team that had the best execution 'when the pressure was at its highest and the lights were the brightest.'

This was the statement with which Denny Hamlin completely disagreed on Actions Detrimental. He claimed there is luck involved in NASCAR more than any other sport, because of which Smith's argument holds little to no weight. The JGR veteran pointed to the ratio of comments to likes 'speaking for itself' on Smith's post as he continued:

"I've seen that this whole when the 'lights are bright, the pressure' like that seems like it's a company talking point that PR is pushing to, 'This is what we're going to say when it comes to crowning a champion'. But realistically, I think the fan base is kind of had enough of it. They understand it a little bit better."

With that said, it'll be interesting to see if Denny Hamlin and Mamba Smith get into a discussion with their opposing views on this subject.