“I’m Guilty of It”: Denny Hamlin Gets Candid About the “Lawlessness” of Turn 1 at COTA

As the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Circuit of the Americas, few corners draw more attention than Turn 1, and few drivers understand its chaos better than Denny Hamlin. Road course numbers aside, this is the flashpoint everyone circles before the green flag drops, even Hamlin.

Every driver arrives at that turn with the same plan. To grab as many positions as they can before the field strings out. That intent funnels into Turn 1, where the run from the start line sends more than 30 cars charging uphill before a tight left-hand hairpin. The climb rises on a steep grade, bunching the pack as engines strain and sightlines shrink.

Cars crest the hill together, each hunting a lane, each trying to wedge into space that may or may not exist, and there’s no easing into rhythm. It is elbows out from the jump, with the pack stacking into a braking zone that invites contact.

Asked whether any code applies in that moment, Hamlin did not dress it up. He said, “Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if there is any. I wish I could say. I think everyone has the mentality, and I’m guilty of it too, is you go in there and you try to position your car that is whatever best for yourself. Now, there’s collateral damage that goes on way out on the right side of you that you never see. And so it’s kind of out of sight, out of mind.”

Drivers convince themselves they didn’t do anything wrong because they didn’t directly hit someone in front of them. Meanwhile, their move may have triggered a chain reaction a few lanes over. Three cars could be shoved wide, forced off line, or spun, and the driver who started it may not even realize it.

Hamlin pointed to the nature of the corner as the reason it keeps happening. “So it’s easy to have a little bit of that lawlessness with less repercussions at turn one at Cota than probably any corner that we’ve got on our schedule,” he said.

Drivers are less likely to destroy their car compared to tighter turns, where one bad dive ends their day instantly. That safety net encourages risk. That is the reason why, in Turn 1 at COTA, survival instincts override etiquette. Drivers go in with tunnel vision, focused on maximizing their own position.

Even the spotters, who normally guide drivers through madness with calm precision, are stretched thin here. They’re trying to describe a traffic jam that’s still forming while their driver barrels toward it uphill at full speed. There’s only so much guidance you can give when visibility is limited and everyone is braking at different points.

Fans also know all these things, which is why many camp on the hill above the braking zone, waiting for the dominoes to fall. One missed braking point can trigger the accordion effect, stacking rows of cars in seconds.

That’s why Turn 1 at COTA has become an engineered chaos. It rewards conviction and punishes hesitation, while masking blame just enough for drivers to convince themselves they did nothing wrong. It’s not that there are no ethics. It’s that survival instincts overpower them the moment the field hits that hill.

Ross Chastain’s take on Turn 1 at COTA

During a media interaction ahead of the race at Circuit of the Americas, Ross Chastain did not sugarcoat his record through Turn 1. The Trackhouse Racing driver said he has struggled there and admitted he has both spun and been spun in the corner, including during a race in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series.

He pointed to the uphill approach as the main problem. Finding a braking marker while climbing compresses time and space, and restarts amplify the issue. The speed delta between restarts and green-flag laps changes how drivers judge entry, even with restart zones moved closer to Turn 20.

Chastain even owned the miscues. “I’ve made more than my fair share of mistakes. The track was designed to build a lot of speed, have a ton of braking potential with the uphill elevation climb to Turn 1, and then trying to make a turn back the other way is really difficult. But when you get it right, it’s very rewarding.”