After

Austin Dillon wrecked his way to victory, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin were evidently mad. The two drivers were fighting for the race win, and those chances were instantly ruined by Dillon’s maneuvers. The rules in NASCAR can sometimes get ignored and that has been the reason for frustration for Hamlin. Intentionally wrecking someone’s car is a violation of Section 4.4 of NASCAR’s Member Code of Conduct, and despite that being the case, Dillon walks away victorious.

Hamlin experienced the crash, and he was taken back to 2023, where he was in a season-long rivalry with Ross Chastain. During the race at Phoenix Raceway, Denny Hamlin intentionally shoved Ross Chastain’s car into the wall on the final lap, costing both drivers multiple positions. Although NASCAR did not take any action at the moment, after an episode of Actions Detrimental, he was hit with a $50,000 fine and a 25-point penalty.

Denny Hamlin has learned his lesson

During the podcast, Denny Hamlin spoke about getting wrecked, and then his co-host moved the attention to the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s reaction after the race. Jared Allen stated, “I’m sure we will have a large audience tuning in here, so we should probably just jump in and get started. I appreciate you not getting angry during your interviews. So thank you for holding back.”

After having his race sabotaged, Hamlin wanted to let loose in the post-race interview, but he remembered advice his friend gave him as he said, “You should thank Tyler Overstreet for that.” The JGR driver then explained, “Say what you want to say but save most of it for tomorrow. Tyler is listening in on Zoom right now.” Having paid a $50,000 fine for oversharing on his podcast, Hamlin has taken some precautions, as he explained, “I do have some safeguards in place; each episode might be edited slightly. Last year, if we had edited just 1% of our content, it could have cost us fifty thousand dollars.”

Hamlin described his setup, saying, “We have a computer down here, near my feet, with Austin Peyton and Tyler monitoring it to flag anything controversial and check with me later to confirm if I’m sure. And my response? ‘Yep, I’m sure.'” With this, it seems like Hamlin is more of a practical learner, as now he has made a system that will prevent him from getting fined.

It’s been a year since he got fined, but he is still taking measures to prevent such a thing from happening again.

What did Denny Hamlin say when NASCAR decided to fine him?

“You’re (Chastain) coming with me, buddy,” said Denny Hamlin as he sandwiched Chastain between his car and the wall. There were many moments that led to this buildup, but this was the result of a season-long rivalry where both drivers tried to wreck each other. While speaking about the incident on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin explained, “[The crash] wasn’t a mistake. No, it wasn’t a mistake. I unleashed, I let the wheel go, and I said, He’s coming with me.” Ultimately, although Hamlin got a portion of his revenge from Chastain, he ended up losing positions during the race.

The JGR driver was still not fined until the podcast came out, and he decided to be extremely candid, which backfired on him. Ever since that incident, Hamlin has been more careful when it comes to revealing his plans that might need a little rule-bending. That being said, do you think Austin Dillon deserves a penalty and a fine for his actions during the Cookout 400? Share your thoughts in the comments below.