Dale Earnhardt Jr. responds to Denny Hamlin’s NASCAR caution take after fan complaints at Martinsville

On Monday’s “Actions Detrimental,” Denny Hamlin ranted about the length of cautions in NASCAR in the aftermath of Sunday’s Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin went as far to say that NASCAR is “hurting the watching experience” by dragging out cautions.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. agrees with Hamlin and offered another reason as to why the length of cautions is negatively impacting the product. Sunday at Martinsville, the first caution of the race came with two laps remaining in Stage 1. Green flag did not wave until 18 laps into Stage 2, a considerable amount of the stage taken away by caution laps. That, Earnhardt said, is an issue.

“He’s right,” Earnhardt wrote on X in response to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic‘s post of Hamlin’s comments. “It’s also chewing into the next stage and shortening up those parts of the race: taking product off the shelf.”

Many NASCAR fans took to social media to share their displeasure with the caution time at the end of Stage 1. Justin Penik of Jomboy Media called it the “biggest problem in the sport” currently.

“I honestly think the biggest problem in the sport of NASCAR right now is how they handle the end of stages,” Penik tweeted. “Caution was thrown with two laps left in the stage. The green flag was thrown 18 laps into the second stage. That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Denny Hamlin shares full thoughts on caution length in NASCAR

Several drivers, including Ryan Preece, were confused as to why so many laps were rolled under caution. Hamlin felt compelled to speak out, frustrated by the influence TV has on the length of cautions.

“We’re running too long under caution,” Hamlin said. “We have to find a way to shorten them up, but we won’t shorten them up as long as we’re doing what we’re doing in the sense of ‘TV has to catch the pit stops live.’ OK, well then you’ve got to shorten your commercials or something.

“… [O’Reilly] especially, I’m telling you my experience as a watcher: It was a single-car wreck, there’s not debris on the track, there’s no clean-up to be had, and it’s just yellow… yellow… yellow. I’m like ‘Choose Already.’”