Denny Hamlin was involved in a wreck that spun JJ Yeley into the turn 1 wall at Richmond Raceway.
After the race, Yeley spoke to Frontstretch’s Michael Massie about Hamlin preaching respect, but it seemed silly that Hamlin spun him on lap 32. Hamlin later apologized on his podcast Actions Detrimental. Was this apology sufficient enough?
Frontstretch‘s Jared Haas answers this week’s questions on NASCAR Mailbox on Frontstretch‘s YouTube channel.
Is transparency needed after the appeal boards announced that Kaulig Racing will lose 75 points while Hendrick Motorsports keeps all their points?
Those questions get answered in the video below.
About the author
Jared Haas joined the Frontstretch staff in May 2020. During his time at Frontstretch, Jared has grown the Frontstretch YouTube channel from less than 200 subscribers to well over 23,000 subscribers.
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As I see it NASCAR has two blackeyes, One of their own making. Hamlin was already looking at a fine, & points reduction depending on the appeals outcome. When he blatantly wrecked the 15. This was so obvious that the booth immediately called it out.
When Matt Kenseth’s crew patched up his damaged car, & he returned to take out Lagano, are we to believe if he’d just said “it just didn’t handle well” that NASCAR would have let him off the hook? Of course not, they took action, & the right action, they didn’t need a confession.
Hamlin saying “it was a car control issue” shouldn’t negate what he’d done. But apparently it has. It was car control, but he was controlling it. NASCAR needs to issue a second penalty, & turn the fine over Rick Ware Racing when it’s upheld
The second blackeye, not of their making is the disparity of the punishments between Hendrick, & Kaulig. True, they don’t control the appeals process, but they do control calling the infractions, & what the punishment is before it goes to appeal.
Now it’s going to look like the rich & powerful team get’s favorable treatment while a new team get’s hammered for a lesser infraction. Kaulig has 2 cars but only has one bad set of louvers on one car. While Hendrick had both louvers on all 4 cars.
It’s a small step before some disgruntled fan, (not me) asks how much $$ was passed to the appeal panel to save their points.
NASCAR needs to get out in front of this quickly, & the way to do it is to keep the fine, but return the points to Kaulig as well
I could write the press release ie, “While our policy on altered single source parts is well know, & we believe is strong enough to make it a deterrent. A situation involving the appeals process has arisen that makes it look like different teams are being treated differently. We have decided as a matter of fairness to return the points to Kaulig as well.
This will in no way effect our punishment for altered parts going forward. Blaw Blaw, etc etc.
Or words to that effect.