Denny Hamlin Issues Strong Statement on NASCAR’s Penalty Approach Amid Bubba Wallace-Kyle Larson Fiasco – “Not Going to be Fun for Anyone”

At the back of the Cup race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, everyone was talking about Bubba Wallace. Unfortunately for him, it was for all the wrong reasons, because he deliberately punted Kyle Larson during the race. And after what transpired post that knock, the NASCAR officials suspended him for one race. In a recent conversation with Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin spoke about the subject of driver retaliation in light of his driver’s suspension.

According to Patrick, NASCAR should not intervene with retaliations and crashing. She believes that the officials often punish the person retaliating, while the original instigator gets away. Hamlin had a different take and said, “They said it’s fair game, as long as you’re racing for position. So we’re racing up front, it’s kind of fair game. We saw with Ross Chastain and myself earlier this year. We’re racing 1-2, he’s crashed me multiple times this year. I’ve always said it will come back around in due time.”

READ MORE: Denny Hamlin Sides With Under-Fire Bubba Wallace as Challenge to Compete Against Kyle Larson in His Territory Is Thrown Toward the Veteran

Denny Hamlin got his revenge on Ross Chastain

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver openly admitted that the chance for revenge arose at Pocono. At the time, he and the Trackhouse driver were fighting for the race win and he squeezed him off. He continued, “Essentially let him wreck himself in that scenario. If I’m him, I know I’ve done this guy wrong, he’s probably going to force me high, I should check up. He didn’t check up and just ran himself right into the fence. NASCAR was okay with that because we’re racing for position.”

“Now if I had slowed down and just took him out, I think they have an exception for that. They need to let it go and let us police it. It’s just going to be a bunch of penalties and that’s not going to be fun for anyone,” added Denny.

In response to that, Danica Patrick acknowledged that the biggest problem are the stakes involved. In other words, if a driver is taken out by another, they lose a lot of ground, while their rival does not. So, the victim has to wait to try and plot their revenge, so that something is at stake once again. She insisted that if drivers self-police, it would all be taken care of.

WATCH THIS STORY: Freddie Kraft Has an Arrogant but Apt Four-Word Response to Bubba Wallace’s Win at Kansas Which He Predicted Himself Mid Race