Denny Hamlin Blames HMS Legend Jeff Gordon for Ending NASCAR’s “Boys Have at It” Days

Wrecks, rivalries, and controversial victories have been a quintessential part of the world of stock car racing. These elements have helped in developing the sport and also earn a huge amount of loyal base. However, if NASCAR is divided into time frames and compared, it will be evident that the sport has been more aggressive in the past than it is now.

Drivers slowing down to seek revenge, trying to wreck each other out of contention, or teaming up with other drivers to settle scores have been a common scenario on the tracks of NASCAR. However, the circumstances have changed by leaps and bounds. The governing body has become more stringent with its policies to ensure parity among the drivers and teams. 

However, these regulations seem to decrease the thrilling affair of the races and Denny Hamlin thinks one person is to be blamed for the recent policies and how the authorities deal with various circumstances.

Denny Hamlin draws a past incident involving a veteran to assert the importance of self-policing

The only suspension that the ongoing season has witnessed, was the one-race ban slapped on Chase Elliott for right hooking the rear of Denny Hamlin which led him to ram directly on the outside wall. Although Elliott had denied that he had intentionally wrecked Hamlin, it was the SMT data that played a pivotal role in the sanction of the punishment.

However, if the same incident would have occurred in the past, would the authority have dealt with it the same way? The answer would be a simple ‘no’ and the reason would have been the absence of SMT data and also the ‘Boys have at it’ policy by NASCAR, a policy that allowed the drivers to police themselves. However, the policy seemed to have hit the rock after the infamous incident, including the veteran driver Jeff Gordon.

The former Hendrick Motorsports driver had wrecked Clint Bowyer intentionally on the tracks of Homestead-Miami back in 2012. The incident could have the possibility of slamming a race suspension, but the driver was penalized $100,00 and was also docked off 25 points. 

Drawing the instance of ‘Boys have at it’ Denny Hamlin in the pre-race interview blamed the 4x Cup Series champion for the conclusion of the policy. In the media availability, the driver was asked, “Do you remember when the ‘Boys Have At It’ mantra kind of went away?”

To this, the driver retorted, “I think that was during the (Matt) Kenseth incident, honestly. With him and (Joey) Logano. That was the point that they stepped in and for the first time in a long time, someone got suspended for something on-track.”

“From that point, they deemed it as anything super egregious that puts someone in danger – they are going to do something about it. The two suspensions we have seen have been egregious and have put people in danger,” Hamlin asserted.

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The JGR driver slams Jeff Gordon for putting an end to the ‘Boys Have At It’ approach

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Continuing on the same lines, Denny Hamlin also drew the instance of his suspension for the intentional wrecking. The driver was also asked, “Are you referencing the Martinsville incident?” 

The No.11 Toyota driver expressed, “That was the point that I think they said unless you are racing for position, they are not going to tolerate someone slowing down – the (Clint) Bowyer, Jeff Gordon incident where Jeff slowed down and waited for him and then took out Bowyer and (Joey) Logano at the time.”

“Those were just really over-the-top stuff that they thought that was essentially not racing,” Hamlin asserted.

Nevertheless, the practicing of self-policing could have surely made the sport a bit more exhilarating affair but also had the potency to make the sport teeming with rivalry and paybacks. The quashing of the policy also asserts the fact, it is NASCAR that holds the strings of the sport and not the teams and drivers.

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