Denny Hamlin reacts to wild Mamba Smith NASCAR championship take, cites Corey Heim

This weekend, Mamba Smith, NASCAR’s “Chief Hype Officer,” had a hot take that baffled Denny Hamlin and others. Fans online were beside themselves after Smith said the point of the championship is not to crown the “best driver.”

In the Next Gen era we haven’t seen a driver truly dominate a season. However, we are seeing that in the Truck Series right now. Corey Heim is having one of the best seasons ever among the tailgaters, and there is a chance it could all be for nothing.

Denny Hamlin has Heim signed to a deal with 23XI Racing. They have fielded cars for Heim on a part-time basis the last two seasons. So, Hamlin is invested in his success and very much paying attention to this year’s Truck Series results.

To hit back at Mamba Smith’s comments, Hamlin used Heim as an example. Could you imagine a one-win driver slugging their way to Phoenix just to beat Heim due to a bad pit stop or another fluke?

“Well… Um… Okay. I mean… Okay. Let’s just throw a hypothetical,” Denny Hamlin said on Actions Detrimental. “My prediction is Corey Heim probably has 10 wins by the time we get to Phoenix. Someone who is in the final four could likely have one win, two wins, something like that. If Corey Heim goes and gets a flat tire, just like Joey Logano did in practice [at Richmond], gets a flat tire, right fronts it in the first part of the race.

“Did he not perform when the lights were brightest? No. Under that theory, he’s like, ‘No, he just didn’t perform when the pressure was on.’ Bulls**t, he got unlucky. We have luck involved in our sport, more so than any other sport. So, that argument doesn’t hold any weight, hardly at all. And again, the ratio on the comments to likes is speaking for itself.”

Denny Hamlin doesn’t like the phrasing that Smith used when talking about the high-pressure situations the playoffs create. He doesn’t think NASCAR fans care for it, either.

“It’s just, I don’t know. I’ve seen that, this whole, ‘When the lights are bright, the pressure.’ That seems like it’s a company talking point, you know, that PR is pushing. This is what we’re going to say when it comes to crowning a champion. But realistically, I think the fanbase has kind of had enough of it. They understand it a little bit better.”

So, what is the reality of the sport right now? Well, it’s the fact that a driver dead last in points among full-time drivers could end up in the playoffs. For one race.

“You know, this weekend at Daytona, when we talk about the format in general, nothing against Cody Ware, but he has no top-fives, I don’t know if he has any top-10s this year,” Hamlin continued. “But Cody Ware could eliminate Alex Bowman or Tyler Reddick from the playoffs by winning Daytona. So, everything Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman did for the first 25 races can be eliminated by what happens on a green-white-checkered on the 26th race by someone in the mid-30s in points. Like, could you imagine? And we’re supposed to be just, cool, sounds fair. The fanbase is over it.”