Denny Hamlin opens up on major change to NASCAR Cup Series playoffs

Denny Hamlin has revealed his thoughts on a major change to the NASCAR Cup Series calendar this week.

The deciding race of the 2026 season has been moved back to Homestead-Miami, but will move on a rotational basis after this year among a number of tracks.

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The championship race was moved from Homestead-Miami to Phoenix in 2020, a controversial move which was nonetheless received well by a number of fans, with Joey Logano winning two of his three Cup Series titles in Arizona.

Hamlin talked about the move to a rotational championship race on his Actions Detrimental podcast this week, praising the Phoenix fans and facilities while admitting he's looking forward to the key race returning to Florida next year.

Hamlin: Phoenix deserved run as Championship Race

"I'm glad to see it back at Homestead," he admitted. "Phoenix is a great venue the way they upgraded the facilities. The fan interaction, the fan zone in there is fantastic. They spent money on the facility to upgrade and make it up to Championship standards.

"The town always supports us, and it's always crowded, doesn't matter if it's spring or the fall Championship race. Phoenix fans show out for us, which is why they deserved to have the Championship race for so long."

Homestead-Miami track president Guillermo Santa Cruz said recently of the move: "First, it's an honor to be chosen as the first one to be in that rotation.

"I think that rotation is a really good model for us to move into. It's good for the fans, it's good for the drivers, and it's great for everybody, and it'll allow us to really set a lot of precedent and then work with NASCAR more broadly to see how the model is going to be executed."

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