Last Sunday, Austin Dillon put on a spectacular race. The Richard Childress Racing driver drove under the lights, setting fire to a Saturday night event at Richmond Raceway. He led for 107 laps in the No. 3 Chevrolet for the first time since Dale Earnhardt did the same en route to his 1988 Daytona 500 victory. Yet although the hype around this race was immense, with fans cheering on their favorite racers, the resulting stats do not match the excitement. But Denny Hamlin is not bothered.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was one of the drivers whom Austin Dillon dumped on the final lap of last year’s race. This year, Denny Hamlin got into another melee spun by another rival, while Dillon won the race. Yet in terms of race popularity, Hamlin believes there is another reason for the decline, rathe

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