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Denny Hamlin weighed in on a recent debate about the NASCAR Hall of Fame<\/p>\n
Denny Hamlin came to the defense of Travis Rockhold, an on-air contributor for Dirty Mo Media, for his take on the NASCAR<\/a> Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rockhold expressed on a recent episode of \u201cThe Dale Jr. Download\u201d<\/a> that the Hall of Fame should be Cup-exclusive, while no O\u2019Reilly Series or CRAFTSMAN Truck Series drivers should be considered.<\/p>\n The take sparked a debate between Rockhold and Earnhardt Jr. on the show, as the latter believes the NASCAR Hall of Fame is meant to recognize the greats of the whole sport, not just the Cup Series.\u00a0<\/p>\n Denny Hamlin on NASCAR Hall of Fame debate: \u2018I\u2019ll join you in this take\u2019<\/p>\n The debate caught the attention of many fans and some within the NASCAR industry. One of those being Kenny Wallace, who said anyone comparing a former O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series champion to the likes of Richard Petty has \u201clost their marbles.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Hamlin, a 61-time Cup Series winner and two-time series runner-up, made it known which side he is on.\u00a0<\/p>\n The driver of the No. 11 penned a message on X making it known that he sides with Rockhold, on the stance of the Hall of Fame should not consider the O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series or the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll join you in this take. @TravisRockhold,\u201d Hamlin wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Hall of Fame debate stemmed from a conversation on Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s podcast. The retired NASCAR star pondered whether or not A.J. Foyt deserved to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n Earnhardt Jr. proceeded to question whether or not Justin Allgaier was worthy of making the\u00a0Hall of Fame ballot. <\/p>\n Allgaier, a JR Motorsports driver, won the 2024 O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series championship and is a 30-time race winner in the series.\u00a0<\/p>\n That was when Rockhold, who said he knew his opinion would be controversial, let it be known how he feels about Hall of Fame-worthy drivers.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think Xfinity, O\u2019Reilly, Busch, Nationwide [Series] should count,\u201d Rockhold said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earnhardt Jr. was taken aback by Rockhold\u2019s stance, and made it clear how he felt about his opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a pretty [expletive] take,\u201d Earnhardt Jr. said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dale Jr. believes O\u2019Reilly, Truck drivers should be considered<\/p>\n Rockhold\u2019s counter to Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s claim was Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n However, the two-time Daytona 500 winner shut down the idea that the NASCAR and the MLB<\/a> are comparable. While the MLB Hall of Fame strictly celebrates the best in the league, NASCAR\u2019s is different.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s Major League Baseball. They are literally saying, \u2018This is Major League Baseball, MLB, the top.\u2019 The NASCAR Hall of Fame is Cup and more,\u201d Earnhardt Jr. said<\/a>. <\/p>\n Rockhold responded by saying he believes it should be the Hall of Fame, rather than the Hall of \u201cVery Good.\u201d<\/p>\n Earnhardt Jr. fired back saying the NASCAR Hall of Fame has always been more than about the elite Cup Series drivers. The former driver of the No. 88 believes that is why O\u2019Reilly and Truck Series drivers should be considered.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re literally changing what the Hall of Fame is,\u201d Earnhardt Jr. said.<\/p>\n Earnhardt Jr. is a NASCAR Hall of Famer in his own right. Inducted in the Class of 2021, Earnhardt Jr. won 26 Cup Series races and two Daytona 500s.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Denny Hamlin weighed in on a recent debate about the NASCAR Hall of Fame Denny Hamlin came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-563465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}