DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — And what is it with people trying to wall-ride me? Why am I always in this thing?!
That’s an exasperated Denny Hamlin, sharing a reaction to a specific thing that could really be anything. He didn’t say it at a podium at a racetrack media center. He wasn’t wearing a racing suit. He hadn’t just jumped out of a racecar, out of breath and high on adrenaline.
Instead, that’s Hamlin, one of the most talented and polarizing and veteran drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, jumping between tangents of his own making on his podcast that debuted earlier this month, under a title — “Actions Detrimental” — that embodies its self-deprecating host.
“I want (to talk about) actions that are detrimental to me,” Hamlin said in the inaugural episode, which was released the Monday after the circuit’s exhibition race at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. “That’s what this is all about. Everyone is saying, ‘Ah, you’re raging a war against NASCAR.’ No, I’m raging a war against myself. I want to show the not-so-pleasant moments I’ve had.”
What’s most interesting about the weekly podcast isn’t the content alone — although the content is quite compelling. Hamlin has a dual perspective as the driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, one of the biggest race teams in NASCAR, and as a co-owner for still-young 23XI Racing. And he doesn’t hold back opinions on the platform, just like he didn’t hold back last year when asked about the safety shortcomings of the Next Gen car. (The numbers don’t lie. As of Thursday afternoon, Hamlin’s podcast is the U.S.’s third-most popular sports podcast and the 54th-most popular podcast in America.)
What’s most interesting, instead, is that this venture seems to further a trend in the ever-changing sports media landscape: that the news-makers are becoming the news-tellers, too, and they’re doing so in ways beyond one-off tweets and ephemeral Instagram stories — further blurring an already fuzzy line between the two entities, for better or worse.
”I think it’ll be a good, honest way for me to inform people about our sport,” Hamlin told reporters in the Daytona International Speedway media center on Wednesday. “If anything I think it’ll help grow our sport with the content.”
This phenomenon has been in NASCAR for a while. “Actions Detrimental” is hosted by Dirty Mo Media, a media company run by Dale Earnhardt Jr. that hosts some of the most popular podcasts in racing. It notably hosts “Door Bumper Clear,” which is executed by spotters on various Cup teams, and “Dale Jr. Download,” co-hosted by Mike Davis (JR Motorsports’ director of communications) and, of course, Earnhardt (one of the most popular and influential voices in racing).
Hamlin has been on both of those podcasts. Dirty Mo Media leaders said that Hamlin was featured on Dale Jr. Download’s second-most-listened to episode of 2022 and Door Bumper Clear’s top episode of last year: “So people are at least listening,” Hamlin remembered being old, shedding a chuckle, “even if they don’t like you.”
But this newsmaker-and-storyteller persona is also a thing in other sports. LeBron James has his own TV show on HBO. Tom Brady has a podcast, and so do NFL stars Jason and Travis Kelce. A bunch of NBA players have tried out the podcasting thing to varying avails, and the most successful of whom could be Draymond Green — who launched “The Draymond Green Show” in 2021 and seemed to anoint himself as the leader of a sports movement the Golden State Warrior calls “The New Media.”
Even still, amid the noise, Hamlin’s podcast finds a way to be unique.
He’s high-minded at times. The opening few minutes of the first episode features him and his co-host, Jared Allen, dissecting if the Clash has overstayed its welcome in the L.A. Coliseum. In the second, Hamlin contemplates whether the Daytona 500 needs to be the first race of the NASCAR season.
He dives into the nitty-gritty at times, too, elaborating on his long-held beefs with various drivers and explaining the feuds between other drivers as he sees it.
In one breath, he seems to speak directly to NASCAR about the upcoming media rights deal, and in the next, he’s contemplating whether his dislike for Cam Newton’s hats explains his lack of Carolina Panthers fandom.
On Wednesday, Hamlin was asked if there was anything he was holding back — anything, perhaps, he’s afraid to say on the forum.
“No, not yet, for sure,” he responded. He then laughed at the future, “Let’s just give it a few weeks.”
