Denny Hamlin recognizes why Kyle Larson had to take all he could when Brad Keselowski ran out of gas, but that doesn’t mean Ryan Blaney didn’t get a raw deal in the Brickyard 400.
On the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin explained why he believes NASCAR was involved in a rough situation at the end of the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, touching on some controversial calls.
“It was just a bad scenario all around at the end of that race,” Hamlin stated . “There were so many things that were just, were not — didn’t work out well, for a lot of people, and it was just, some of the calls, I thought, were just super questionable, when it comes to, you know, whether they throw that caution at the end or not.”
The timing of the final caution that secured the win for Larson was polarizing, as well as the restart where Larson took the lead from Blaney. Hamlin believes it’s still better to go earlier than later on the restart, even with the confusion we saw taking place, but the No. 12 was in a no-win situation regardless.
“It’s still better to go early than it is to go late, but again, I don’t know, I think that you probably — Blaney was just in a tough spot. The outside lane just was not going to work,” Hamlin added . “It didn’t matter if it cleared him by two inches, the bottom was just going to be so significantly faster, so the No. 12 was done when the No. 5 slid up there.
“So, I just think, in that situation, in the front row, maybe we just let the leader, or let the lone car left on the front row, stay there. No sliding up. Maybe that’s more fair, right? Does that seem like a more reasonable thing? Because it definitely changed the outcome of this race, without a doubt.”
Perhaps NASCAR will change their stance if a similar situation arises in the future. Nevertheless, Kyle Larson was the one kissing the bricks when it was all over in Indianapolis, and you can’t take that moment away from him.
Denny Hamlin updates health, reacts to hard wreck at Brickyard 400
Despite putting together a strong race at Indianapolis, Denny Hamlin wasn’t able to finish the race due to a late wreck. Going into the first overtime restart, the NASCAR veteran was collected in a fairly violent accident, and his afternoon ended in disappointment.
Alas, Hamlin is still looking for a Brickyard 400 to complete his run of the crown jewel races in NASCAR. His bid for the win would end entering Turn 1 on the first overtime restart of the race, when John Hunter Nemechek moved up in front of Daniel Hemric, who was already there with the nose of his car.
Nemechek bounced off the inside wall between the track and pit road and then up the track, collecting multiple cars and slamming into the wall. Alex Bowman was also caught up in the mess. After leaving the care center, Hamlin spoke to the media.
“I couldn’t see I just, there was a car coming across the track, I hit them,” Hamlin explained to Frontstretch .
The restarts were causing drivers to take, take, take. That was a result of the difficulty passing on the track: “Because you couldn’t pass, yeah. We’re all just kinda running in a line there, saving fuel,” Hamlin added. “It’s like a speedway race, but we were just doing everything we could to get to the finish and couldn’t make it.”
Denny Hamlin entered the race 20 points out of the regular season championship lead. He remains 4th in the standings, but is now trailing Kyle Larson by 43 points, as he’ll look to bounce back when the Cup Series returns on Aug. 11.
On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.
The post Denny Hamlin proposes ‘more fair’ NASCAR rule change after Kyle Larson swiped win from Ryan Blaney appeared first on On3 .
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