Denny Hamlin Sounds Off on NASCAR Promoting Driver Recklessness With Controversial Finish Line Ruling

Talladega is infamous for the big one and that’s exactly what happened on the final lap of the Cup Series race on Sunday. As Tyler Reddick took the checkered flag, a monsoon of chaos unfurled behind him as several cars spun around, slammed into the wall, and Corey LaJoie even found himself upright by his side on two wheels against the wall. However, what many deemed controversial was how the caution did not come out immediately like many opined it should have. Seemingly, NASCAR waited until Reddick crossed the start/finish line to turn on the yellow, and even Denny Hamlin didn’t seem too pleased with that as he discussed it on his podcast.

Denny Hamlin advises drivers to act wisely during a wreck

On a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, the Joe Gibbs Racing star’s unapologetic personality came out again as he slammed NASCAR for reportedly prioritizing the drama of a race win over driver safety. The racer mentioned how the concluding part of the Talladega race was questionable, by saying, “There was some pretty junked up stuff. The only thing I don’t like about it was that it promotes the drivers to just hold the throttle wide open and pray.”

Hamlin further advised drivers to proceed with caution whenever there’s a crash. He also talked about the probable strategy that NASCAR uses whenever there’s a wreck, revealing how the organization gives drivers the upper hand if they’re able to pass a wrecking car. This seemingly encourages racers to go as hard until a caution comes out. “If you see cars crashing, just stop. Just slow down cause there’s a caution coming and you’re locked in your spot, anyway. But when there is no caution, what NASCAR does is they look at the video of everyone just crashing and they start marking all these cars that they consider in the crash. If you can pass them while they are crashing, they give you that extra spot,” the #11 driver said.

Some of these crashes that happen back in the back of the pack were from drivers saying, ‘F**k it, I’m holding it wide open until they throw the caution and if I destroy my car, so be it’,” he further revealed.

While Hamlin tries to make a point, the other side of his argument also mentioned the time period was too short for any major incident to go down. To be fair, Tyler Reddick crossed the start/finish line just a few seconds after the wreck unfurled behind him.

Joe Gibbs Racing star acknowledges race control’s ‘tough call’

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Denny Hamlin, despite having his strong opinions, understands why NASCAR decided not to intervene. Of course, interrupting entertaining racing action on the final lap of the race is something that would have been criticized by fans and insiders. At the end of the day, it was one of those 50-50 decisions that could have gone either way and NASCAR just found themselves in a really difficult spot.

“They held it off at least till the actual, the line, so maybe it was 300 yards, 200 yards late. From a safety perspective, yes…I don’t know we did have one car on its side, others had pretty hard hits, but I don’t know, that’s a tough call for them to have to do. They want to try to let it play out anytime they can, that’s for sure,” Hamlin added.

What are your opinions on the matter? Should NASCAR have called for the caution flag immediately after the wreck took place, or were they right to let it play out at least until the race concluded? Let us know your views on the matter.