Hamlin Attempts to Pick Up the Pieces from Thursday’s Penalty News

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – What next?

Denny Hamlin was flabbergasted with a penalty handed down by NASCAR on Thursday for an engine inspection violation that will have affects on he and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team now and into the Playoffs.

Hamlin’s race-winning engine from Bristol this spring was inadvertently torn down and rebuilt by Toyota Racing Development prior to NASCAR being able to inspect it and as such, the sanctioning body was left with no choice but to penalize them.

Driver and team were docked 75 points in the driver and owner standings, along with a deduction of 10 Playoff points. Crew chief Chris Gabehart was also fined $100,000.

As a result, he now finds himself sixth in the standings, some 103 points back of points leader Tyler Reddick. In addition, his Bristol win, which this penalty stems from, no longer counts toward Playoff eligibility.

“Certainly don’t feel any better than I did finding out in the moment,” Hamlin said Friday at Daytona. “It’s really hard. It’s really hard in this kind of format when you work so hard in the regular season to get all those bonus points. It’s really tough to see it just wiped away. But it’s part of it and we gotta just overcome.”

Hamlin explained that TRD executives alerted he and the team that they needed to meet with them on Wednesday, with the meeting taking place on Thursday prior to the penalty being announced by NASCAR.

“Just had questions, you know, trying to get some clarification on exactly how, what, when, and all that stuff,” Hamlin said of the details of the meeting. “But they obviously were very regrettable to have to give me that information when they did. I feel bad for ’em ’cause I knew that they did not want to have to bring me in a room and tell me that. It was, you know, we’re gonna have something that is gonna affect our season.”

As he continued to explain how all of this played out, Hamlin alluded to the long-lasting effect Thursday’s penalty could have on his team throughout their Playoff run.

“No point matters until it does,” Hamlin said. “That’s the truth is that it won’t matter until it does. The couple years that we’ve missed the cut from the final four, it’s been the Hail Melon and we’ve had the power steering break at Homestead, you know? So, it comes down to a couple points here and there. It just means that we’re gonna have to be even that much greater when we get down to the second and third round.

“You celebrate these one point stage victories and race victories so much because you know, that man, every round I’ve got that.

“I look at like, you know, we’re in contention for the regular season…. that’s gone. What we potentially lost and could lose more. Like Blaney wasn’t gonna reach us in points, so at the worst we were gonna be fourth. We could go back to eighth, ninth, you know?

“It’s not just those 10 points, it’s the seven, eight others that we’re gonna miss out on every round. So, cumulative, it could be 50 or so points. And so that’s the gut punch is like, you know, this, this format rewards regular season excellence. But it certainly allows you to have not a perfect day, one day, and still be able to race for a championship.

“Now I’m kind of back there in the middle where it’s like I’m very vulnerable in some spots.”

While still trying to wrap his arms around everything that has taken place in the last 24 hours, Hamlin was still optimistic that his team could help blunt the effect of the penalty over the course of the final two races of the regular season at Daytona and Darlington, both tracks that he has counted multiple wins over his career.

“Certainly, if we can get hot and win some races, it won’t hurt as bad, right? We could get back to a decent number, for playoff points for the first round, second round, third round. There’s always an opportunity and certainly the tracks line up nicely for us.”

To their credit, his fellow drivers stood up for Hamlin on the penalty, given the nature of it being an issue that stemmed from the manufacturer itself and not the driver or team.

“I was bummed to see that because it’s a huge penalty and one that can for sure affect your season in a negative manner,” said Kyle Larson. “Because you got the 10 playoff points, plus he’s falling down during your season, so it’s really more than 10. And that goes a long way. I mean, you want everybody to have a fair shot.

“And it wasn’t like, at least from what I understand, it wasn’t like they were cheating. Itwas just a mistake. But, you know, a mistake’s, a mistake and you have to pay for it. Either way, it’s a bummer for their team and bummer for competition, I guess in general.

You want everybody to have the fair shot of making it to Phoenix. I mean, their team didn’t do anything. The 11 team didn’t do anything wrong, so, yeah, just unfortunate. But, their team is so fast that I think they’ll be fine. You can’t obviously have any hiccups throughout the playoffs because it just makes things tougher and you’re always gonna look back at that moment that could affect you.

“They’ll be okay. Like I said, they’re fast.”

Brad Keselowski echoed Larson’s comments and took them a step forward by looking at it from the view of both the driver and owner.

“I wouldn’t say I was surprised. I have a lot of empathy though. Those shoes drop on both feet and that weight drops on both feet. I guess I look at something like that and I have empathy because I know that could one day be me,” Keselowski said.

“I know for certain that that Denny himself didn’t do anything wrong. But I also understand that the reason for the penalty, why NASCAR has that system in place, so it’s rather unfortunate to see it, that system need to be utilized. Feels very much like an honest mistake, but, you know, NASCAR’s not in the business of judging intent. And I respect that as well. I guess I just keep using the word empathy. I wouldn’t want to be in Denny’s position there. Tough place to live

“The second I read about the penalty, I could just picture myself in those shoes and answering the call from the sponsors and looking at the team members who are disappointed. Like, how do I address that? And that’s not necessarily Denny’s problem. That’s probably more Joe Gibbs and Toyota’s problem, but I certainly have empathy for it nonetheless.”