Update: Apologies have been issued.
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Denny Hamlin’s disdain for Speedway Motorsports’ reconfiguration and repave track record over the years is well documented and manifested itself once again on social media as Thursday night turned to Friday morning.
Earlier in the week, an SRO sports car event at freshly repaved Sonoma Raceway in California was halted due to numerous sections of the 2.52-mile circuit coming apart during a two-day test session ahead of race weekend.
Specifically, portions of Turns 4, 7, 9 and 11 has undergone repair and Turn 11 is being repaved entirely in advance of races for SRO sanctioned Fanatec GT America, GT4 America, GT America and TC America this weekend.
The annual NASCAR weekend at Sonoma is scheduled for June 7-9 with several teams having just completed a tire compatibility test at the venue last week.
Hamlin immediately made his disappointment with Speedway Motorsports public and it received a commensurate public response from company CEO Marcus Smith, the son of company founder and NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Bruton Smith.
NWS refers to also recently repaved North Wilkesboro Speedway, which is also owned by Speedway Motorsports. Smith immediately fired back a public response at the veteran Cup Series driver and initiated a contentious and deeply personal back-and-forth.
Hamlin is referring to the reconfigurations and/or repaves of Kentucky Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway — which have each led to points of contention from drivers but especially Hamlin over the years.
More on that at the bottom of the post, but the two NASCAR veterans continued to trade barbs.
And that, was that, at least through the night. But there is some extra context that must be understood here too.
Speedway Motorsports first reconfigured Bristol Motor Speedway after the spring race in 2007. One of the most iconic stops on the Cup Series scheduled, known for one groove and the bump-and-run, the elder Smith ordered a progressively banked reconfiguration to encouraged side-by-side racing and multiple grooves.
A track that once had a years’ long wait list for the summer night race steadily declined afterwards. Speedway Motorsports tried to make up for the mistake by grinding down the progressively banked upper groove but it just made Bristol a one-lane top dominant track instead.
Since then, NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports has applied a traction compound to the bottom groove to try to keep cars from migrating to the top while also putting dirt on the track for the spring race from 2021 to 2023.
Texas Motor Speedway was reconfigured in 2017 and it has went so poorly that the track has lost a Cup date, lost its IndyCar date and has had every race there negatively affected by the new layout — a reduction of the banking in Turns 1 and 2.
Atlanta Motor Speedway was reconfigured into a diet Daytona or Talladega much to the chagrin of drivers at the time, including Hamlin, who pointed out what happened to Bristol and Kentucky, the latter of which doesn’t even have a national touring date anymore.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.