Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Denny Hamlin, vented his frustration on his Actions Detrimental podcast this week in response to Ross Chastain’s actions during the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega.
Late in the race, Hamlin and a group of Toyotas scythed through a pack of cars regaining speed after pitting. As the Toyotas steamed through the middle, Chastain threw an aggressive block to disrupt them.
FOX commentator Kevin Harvick audibly winced, describing it as a “really bold move,” and said “Luckily he didn’t cause a crash.”
On the receiving end of the block, Hamlin was furious; he exhausted his frustrations via his podcast, Actions Detrimental, the following day:
“If you can have someone black flagged for forcing you below the yellow line, to stop them from passing you, why can’t we stop the guy that is swerving at 150 miles an hour when the pack is coming at 190?
“There’s a reason why we have a merge rule when you leave the pit area. You can’t just leave the pit area and turn right onto the racetrack. Why is that? … Because it’s an unsafe condition.
“They’re not up to speed yet. We’ve got that line of cars going, and they just said “okay, I’m just gonna swerve, back and forth, until somebody checks up, or gets crashed” – That’s bulls*** racing.”
So how would NASCAR police this? Hamlin said: “There shouldn’t be a rule, it should be common sense … To me it’s an unsafe pit exit – no different than why we have to run the apron all the way to turn two – until we get up to speed.
“It’s certainly frustrating and it ain’t ended bad yet, but it will next time that happens.” he ominously ended the segment.
Hamlin finished 21st in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 and dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the driver standings behind Kyle Larson. Austin Cindric won in a photo-finish over Ryan Preece (who was later disqualified for a spoiler infringement). You can find the race report here on The MotorPost.
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