“They could say 36 races, which they’re not. Everyone just get over it. You’re gonna get playoffs.” Denny Hamlin bluntly dropped this line on his podcast after that Phoenix finale heartbreak, where he led more laps than anyone but still walked away empty-handed. The debate over the playoff format is the hottest topic in the garage, and Hamlin shared his brutally honest thoughts about it.

Hamlin didn’t mince words on why, slamming the one-race finale as a handout to lesser efforts. “Mediocre people want the small sample size possible. I think the greats, they wanted to give a bigger sample size,” Hamlin said, naming himself alongside standouts like William Byron, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, and Tyler Reddick as advocates of a longer sample size for crowning a champion.

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