Denny Hamlin Is Still Not Over His NASCAR Penalty From Earlier This Season

It has been nearly five months since Denny Hamlin got penalized by NASCAR after he admitted that he wrecked Ross Chastain at Phoenix. Unsurprisingly, after all this time, the JGR driver has still not forgotten about the points penalty, something that can affect his run for the regular season championship this week at Daytona.

With the final race of the regular season approaching, Hamlin was asked if would be able to claim the regular season title over his teammate Martin Truex Jr. with the race at Daytona. The JGR veteran trails Truex by 39 points, a gap that could have been just 14 points if not for that penalty.

Denny Hamlin is still unhappy about his early season penalty

After the race at Watkins Glen, Hamlin mentioned, “I mean, it’s doable. You’ve got to have things go your way. But yeah, if we can talk NASCAR into those 25 points they took away earlier in the season. We’d really make it interesting.”

Earlier in the season, when NASCAR headed to Phoenix, Hamlin was mired in controversy. The three-time Daytona 500 winner admitted to wrecking Ross Chastain on his podcast, Actions Detrimental. Following that, he was given a 25 points deduction penalty along with a $50,000 fine on the grounds of violating Sections 4.4 of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct.

The rule was put in place to avoid a race or championship to be manipulated by any drivers, especially if they decided to wreck somebody intentionally.

What happened between Hamlin and Ross Chastain at Phoenix?

The two have had several run-ins in the past. So, when the race was on at Phoenix Raceway back in March, Hamlin ran Chastain up against the outside wall, causing damage to the Trackhouse Racing car.

Thereafter both Hamlin and Chastain ended up in 23rd and 24th place, respectively. Interestingly, it would be the comments he made on the podcast that made NASCAR slam him with a penalty.

Hamlin apparently narrated that his strategy call had put him ahead of drivers who had fresh tires on. But since he was still on the old tires, he wasn’t able to turn properly.

That is when he saw Chastain next to him. Owing to their previous beef, Hamlin stated, “You’re coming with me, buddy.” Thereafter the pair made contact ruining both their races. So in a nutshell, he pretty much admitted to wrecking Chastain on purpose.