After another rainout forced NASCAR to finish the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Monday afternoon, many in the sport have been questioning the organization’s approach to TV viewership windows.

Some have pointed out that if the race had simply started a little earlier on Sunday the whole thing could have been completed. Instead, due to a late start time, inclement weather forced things to be moved to Monday after only a handful of laps were raced.

“I believe, I can’t be exact, but I’m sure, pretty sure that big shower that we had that canceled us was the last shower for quite some time,” Denny Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “So we would have been able to actually get the entire race in because there would have only been 100 laps to go, not 150.”

So why doesn’t NASCAR simply start some of these races earlier, particularly when there’s ample evidence that weather will be a factor?

“I mean there’s an argument to be had both ways,” Hamlin explained. “I believe, now again I don’t have all the information that NASCAR has, right, but man we have chased ratings for so long. We’re willing to be on different networks and we’re going to streaming and our start times are all over the place. Just chasing ratings. Chasing it. Is that the best thing for the sport versus having you know at Sunday, 1 o’clock you have a race to watch?”

The ratings chasing has made for an interesting debate. On the one hand, most want to see the sport of NASCAR continue to grow. On the other, drivers and teams want more consistency with start times and getting full races in.

That’s mostly driven by the networks.

“I think when it’s on a big network I kind of understand you’re wanting to be later because then it leads into something that people are supposed to (watch) or are coming to tune into,” Hamlin said. “And that was the whole point with the later start time is there’s more houses that tune in later in the evening on Sunday. Sunday during the day people go and they do stuff. And by the time they’re done doing their stuff, they want to come home because they’ve got work tomorrow, so they come home at a reasonable hour and get their stuff done and then they turn on the TV.”

NASCAR simply isn’t in quite as dominant a position as, say the NFL, Hamlin pointed out. People aren’t shifting their schedules around for NASCAR, which makes the sport’s decision-making a little more difficult.

There is some tinkering to try to maximize viewership. Hamlin just seemed frustrated with constantly chasing eyeballs.

“We’re chasing around all these slots and things like that,” Hamlin said. “I would just argue that on USA, what are people, why are you starting it late? What are you trying to get people to? I guess you’re trying to get more households to turn on the TV. But then you’re trying to get whoever’s tuning into the thing after yours, that if our race runs long and you actually get to watch the last 10 laps, maybe that person while waiting on your show sees the end of your race and is like, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ Man, that is such a damn stretch. That is a stretch.”