Denny Hamlin wants to race a truck at Eldora

INDIANAPOLIS – Despite a few tweets during Wednesday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway, Denny Hamlin isn’t down on dirt racing.

“I actually would like to run that race next year if anybody is willing to give me a truck ride,” Hamlin said Friday.

But he doesn’t want to race a Cup car there – or at any short track whose pit area appears as cramped as he thought Eldora’s seemed to be after a nine-truck crash on the 19^th lap of the Dirt Derby.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver clarified his Twitter exchange with Clint Bowyer (“we like to give each other crap at times,” Hamlin joked) over the worthiness of the half-mile oval, which opened in 1954, for playing host to NASCAR’s premier series.

1. Fans always talk about how they want us to go to more old short tracks. This is why it's not possible. Eldora is one of the nicest but…

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) July 20, 2017

2. It still struggles with having the infrastructure to make things organized.

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) July 20, 2017

1. Highly disagree! Nicer suites, media center, and facility than some we go to. No live pit stops so don't need better pit road. https://t.co/1iAP6gkCeS

— Clint Bowyer (@ClintBowyer) July 20, 2017

Are we sitting on he same planet? pic.twitter.com/2h51x3PApT

— Clint Bowyer (@ClintBowyer) July 20, 2017

2. Track doesn't organize race! If it's not to your liking that resides under sanction. https://t.co/jt1AvaAxHV

— Clint Bowyer (@ClintBowyer) July 20, 2017

I'm on 🌏. You're in a dirt fantasy land 😁. I said "eldora is one of the nicest". It's perfect for the truck series..Once a year.

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) July 20, 2017

“My simple point is it’s so hard,” he said. “I was watching the race, and guys were trying to fix their trucks on pit road, and it was kind of a mess. I was simply saying I’m all for short tracks, I wish we had 36 of them every single week, but it’s hard to come in to a place that only hosts one time a year, and especially a local short track, and put on a big event and make it look organized.”

Hamlin said he still enjoyed watching Wednesday’s race.

“Eldora has done an amazing job, their facility is second to none, and it was a pretty damn good race at the end, so it was pretty exciting from my standpoint,” he said. “We’re not going to go forward if we try to go backward, you know what I mean? We’ve got to move this sport forward. A place like Eldora is a great place, but you just can’t go back to the old racetracks.”

Hamlin said he mainly wanted to call attention to the unrealistic hopes of running a big-league race at a defunct oval such as North Wilkesboro Speedway, adding that smaller tracks would be limited because “the Truck Series brings a certain amount of carnival to the racetrack. The Cup Series brings a much bigger carnival, and how does that really work?”

During this week’s NASCAR on NBC podcast, Eldora Speedway general manager Roger Slack said a Cup race at the track was feasible but would require overcoming some logistical hurdles.