Denny Hamlin Says NASCAR Needs Its Own Drive to Survive: ‘There Is No Face’

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Denny Hamlin says NASCAR’s biggest problem in reaching new fans is that viewers don’t know the people behind the wheel, and he pointed to Formula 1’s Drive to Survive as the model, in an interview with Front Office Sports.

Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owns 23XI Racing, said fans who attend a race usually come back, but getting them there is the hard part.

https://x.com/FOS/status/2113391194415710521

Hamlin: ‘There is no face’

“There’s so many people that when they actually go to a NASCAR race, they enjoy it so much and it’s, you know, they become hooked on it,” Hamlin said. “And, but how do you get the eyeballs when we’re all fighting for them, right? And like you said, the big four, what makes us a little bit different is that there is no face.”

He said the Netflix series turned Formula 1’s personalities into the draw.

“What made Drive to Survive, in my opinion, so popular is that you got to know the personalities,” Hamlin said. “And sometimes it wasn’t even the personalities of the drivers. It was the CEOs, the principals of the race team.”

“That’s where people get attached is to know the life story of someone,” he said. “And then you start to pull for that person for whatever that reason is.”

What NASCAR has tried

NASCAR has made its own documentary series. NASCAR: Full Speed on Netflix followed Cup Series drivers through the 2023 playoffs in its first season and returned in 2025 to cover the 2024 title run. NASCAR also released RISING on YouTube in November 2025, a five-part series following Carson Hocevar, Jesse Love and Rajah Caruth.

Hamlin did not mention those projects in the clip. His point was about reaching people who have never been to a race and don’t already follow the sport.

Hamlin’s own Chase fight

Hamlin heads into Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama, fourth in the Chase standings, 31 points behind leader Kyle Larson with three races left. He led the standings through the first two races of the Chase.

The race starts at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.