Following last Sunday’s contentious decision by NASCAR involving Christopher Bell’s wall ride, Denny Hamlin recently weighed in. He criticized NASCAR for crafting ambiguous rules that, according to him, keep the power in their hands as the final arbiters in such unforeseen situations.
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In the final lap of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville, Bell slid the wall to pass Wallace, a maneuver that briefly shot him into the final four. Nonetheless, NASCAR subsequently slapped the #20 driver with a penalty for this desperate move, deemed as similar to Ross Chastain’s 2022 “Hail Melon” maneuver, bumping him down to 22nd place.
Later, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Vice President of Competition, compared the incident to a loose tire — a tire rolling down the track — declaring it a straightforward penalty that’s cut and dried, leaving no room for appeal.
Bell’s teammate, Hamlin, wasn’t convinced by NASCAR’s rationale or their verdict. Voicing his disagreement on his podcast, he stated, “That’s not true. I don’t agree with that. A tire rolling across the track means a tire a wheel is off right that is a definite thing… I don’t know again they they put such vague wording in their rules.”
Adding, “It’s what allows these instances to come up where they are always in these situations well how are they going to interpret their rule this week right there’s not enough clean defined rules in that rule book because they just leave it open for themselves to do what they want or feel is right. And so um that’s the issue that we have right?” Hamlin said.
He also hinted that probably NASCAR’s decision to ensure at least one Chevrolet car made it to the final championship could have been swayed by the manufacturer itself. He argued that manufacturers wield too much influence over NASCAR race outcomes, claiming they’ve even spoiled Superspeedway racing.
However, the #11 driver pointed out that NASCAR is unlikely to challenge the manufacturers, as they are the organization’s bread and butter. He noted that because NASCAR won’t bite the hand that feeds them, they shy away from upsetting the manufacturers.
Joe Gibbs reacts to the penalty imposed by NASCAR
Visibly frustrated by not seeing any JGR cars in the championship finale, Gibbs relayed that NASCAR had deemed the incident a safety violation, which precluded any appeal.
He stated, “They said it’s over,” and acknowledged they are “still dealing with it.” When probed about the possibility of an appeal, Gibbs expressed his displeasure, remarking, “I’d love to. They said we can’t appeal.”
Hamlin, highlighting the ambiguity in the rule book, noted the need for clearer regulations, akin to those in other sports, to reduce NASCAR’s discretionary power.
