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Denny Hamlin thinks midweek races will happen

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Denny Hamlin explains that he and the secret council made up of industry and NASCAR leaders are in discussions to have mid-week races.

In this week’s edition of the Dale Jr. Download, guest star Denny Hamlin revealed the existence of a secret driver’s council and the possibility that midweek Cup races could happen in the foreseeable future.

The Driver’s Council has been around in an official capacity since 2016, but Hamlin told Dale Earnhardt Jr. that it has now been broken into various groups.

And Hamlin says that he is part of a “different, secret council now. … I meet with all the industry leaders, the track presidents, the team presidents, NASCAR. I feel like they give us a great platform to go in there and speak our minds and tell them about the schedule.”

One of the items under discussion? A mid-week race.

The question has been raised, “can we get some mid-week races going on? How can we do that? Let’s start it now, so I think there are some big things on the horizon. … I see it within the next couple of years: You’re gonna see something Wednesday, Thursday.”

“Like a lot of conversations, it’s been building momentum and you see it’s successful in other sports.” Earnhardt added. “So I don’t know why it wouldn’t be successful in our sport as well.”

The beginning of summer is the optimum time to schedule a mid-week race, according to Hamlin.

“I think this time of the year, no basketball, no hockey, no football, we’ve got to be crushing it,” Hamlin said. “We need to be at the forefront and we need to be on TV as much as we can. I think this is a great time for us. There’s no cat letting out of the bag, it’s still nothing but talks but it’s definitely something on people’s radar for sure.”

For more, watch the video above.

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