Denny Hamlin was left frustrated at NASCAR following a “nickel and dime” penalty judgment call on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.
Upon arriving home from Chicagoland Speedway early on Monday morning, Denny Hamlin still felt unfairly disadvantage by a judgement call pit road penalty on Sunday during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Camping World 400.
And he took to Twitter to express it.
Hamlin received the penalty on lap 105 when a tire was allowed to sit prone to the outside of the No. 11 car, within the pit box, but outside of the arm’s reach of any crew member. The penalty resulted in Hamlin having to start at the rear of the field.
He won the opening stage of the race, but with a rules package that emphasizes track position, the penalty deeply impacted his ability to contend. Hamlin finished the afternoon in 15th.
Ruined our day. And for what? A nickel and dime judgment call? This intent is not why this rule was put into place. Let’s go back to using common sense. https://t.co/KdlBT234bp
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, responded to Hamlin’s comments during his weekly post-race appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“Well, you can’t judge intent,” O’Donnell said. “If a part breaks or anything in the car, if we had to judge intent really on almost any penalty we’d be in trouble. That’s why we have a rule book and it’s black and white and we’ve been through those things. It’s in place for safety reasons. We’ve been consistent on those calls all year. I think we’re looking at some things around the new car that we can do down the road. We certainly don’t want to be in the rules business or too many rules. But on that case, it’s one where we’ve got to make that call.”
And Hamlin took to Twitter to respond again, too.
That’s true. However a tire sitting in place right next to a changer is not uncontrolled. If it’s a real safety issue then let’s get back the 40 guys we laid off who used to carry these tires in a “controlled” manner https://t.co/iBVt1yeg3W
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