Denny Hamlin Exposes NASCAR’s Secretive Orders in Martinsville to Crack Down on Race Manipulation

The playoff race at Martinsville Speedway has to be one of the darkest chapters of this year’s NASCAR season. OEMs were involved with the teams in relaying the message to spotters, which then got passed down to the drivers. Ross Chastain, Austin, Dillon and Bubba Wallace were all part of the act that shaped the result of the race. While the Toyota camp wasn’t able to get their driver Christopher Bell through, the Chevy drivers got the job done for William Byron.

Now we all know what happened in the aftermath of these events on the racetrack. NASCAR dropped the hammer on the team’s leadership group with suspensions, whereas the teams and the drivers were fined heavily. But, if we are to go by Denny Hamlin’s latest admission, it seems like NASCAR did warn the drivers about potential race manipulation. Yet, the drivers stuck to their plans and eventually faced the consequences of their actions.

Denny Hamlin was surprised to hear NASCAR on the team radio

Manufacturer partnership plays a key role in helping teams make progress on the racetrack. Now the field is divided into three parties, with one team leading the charge for that particular manufacturer. Joe Gibbs Racing for Toyota, Hendrick Motorsports for Chevy, and Team Penske for Ford. The rest of the field depends on their big brother teams in terms of technical alliance to build their race program and progress in the field.

So in short, the manufacturers do have a big say in how the team’s races, especially in the clutch races. Perhaps this was the reason why they stuck to their tasks despite the callout from NASCAR on the radio. While the Chevy group and the #23 were busy trying to plot the race, Denny Hamlin was baffled to hear that NASCAR was clearly stating the teams and drivers to stray away from race manipulation tactics.

“I don’t know whether it was publicly stated or not. At the end of the Martinsville race, they came on the radio and told the spotters, if it is not your day, get out of the way and let the cars through. I just found it very interesting. I said, wait a minute NASCAR said what? They said, If it’s not your day, get out of the way and let the cars through, and I wonder who are they speaking to?” Hamlin said this on the Actions Detrimental podcast.

However, he didn’t think that NASCAR should be schooling the drivers or the teams at all. Irrespective of the status of the race, be it a normal regular season event or cutoff race, this forces other drivers in the field to restrict themselves. “It’s just a tough spot to be in when you’re having a bad day because your crew chief puts you out on fresh tires, and it’s like I can’t use them because I don’t want to get in the middle of all these races going on,” he added.

Well, when you’ve instilled a racing product that promotes parity, these are the sorts of tactics teams are going to implement. While the racing has been good on a few select tracks, Hamlin highlighted that NASCAR has a car problem that they are trying to solve with other means.

Hamlin takes a dig at the Next Gen car again

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The veteran driver might sound like a broken record when talking about Next Gen cars and how it could be better. But, if you look at the championship race, it has everything but a product that would leave fans fulfilled. After Joey Logano won the race last Sunday, there was this feeling that this is as good as racing can get at Phoenix Raceway. And, while the problem is evident that the spec car doesn’t give the drivers too many options, NASCAR is hesitant to make any changes.

We’ve seen the Xfinity car getting loose when side-drafted, and that, in turn, allows the aggressor to make the pass, right? Although the same was applicable to the Gen 6 car, the rigid body and aerodynamic design of the Next Gen car negate traditional passing moves that drivers are used to making in NASCAR.

Explaining how the overall racing product can be better, Denny Hamlin further added, “We have a car problem, right? And we’re trying to fix it through some other things. But I believe in my heart of hearts, we gotta get the back of the cars up so the rear car can manipulate the spoiler of the front car, like the Xfinity car. Right now we plant the back, and there’s no affect the rear car has on the front car. That’s how passes get made.”

It is indeed tough to see NASCAR listen to the argument by Hamlin or the experts on this matter. But a change to the Next Gen car could lead to favorable racing product not only for drivers but also for the fans.