“Give My Mom a Break”: Denny Hamlin Doesn’t Shy From Using Family to Call Out “Flimsy” Next Gen Car’s Fragility

Optimizing the Next Gen cars has been a headache for NASCAR for quite some time. Otherwise known as the Gen-7 car, from time to time, feedback from the drivers has suggested that some changes are indeed impending for it. The recent events at Daytona have yet again sparked some questions about the car’s safety as the multi-car wreck on the 95th lap comes to the fore again. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin participated in the discussion, with some valuable inputs as usual.

Bringing about two decades of driving experience into the conversation, Hamlin is among the most insightful people in the NASCAR community. Speaking on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin and co-host Jarred Allen delved deep into the crashes in the regular season finale and had a surprising family reference to explain their stance.

Denny Hamlin dissects Ryan Preece’s crash at Daytona

In 2013, NASCAR introduced roof flaps to the Gen-6 cars to help with grounding the vehicle quicker. Fast forward to 2022, when the Next Gen cars made their debut, the safety of the driver was one aspect that stood out yet again. Recently retired driver Kurt Busch was the driver who suffered the most from concussions due to the inability of the vehicle to minimize the impact on the body. Denny Hamlin has also been a part of gruesome wrecks at Daytona, with the most notable one coming in 2013, going briefly airborne.

Explaining the situation of the devastated Ryan Preece, Hamlin says, “He never really had… and I don’t want to downplay this, he never had one where bam it lands flat on the base of the wheels. He’d have risked kind of a spinal pressure fracture there if he had landed dead flat on his wheels, especially with how rigid the bottom of these cars are.”

“Once you’ve blown the tires out, these things are gonna land flat on the stops and it’s gonna be harsh. So, luckily it looked like all of his limbs stayed in the car, nothing big came in the car even though he was very very exposed. We have to figure that one out. But man, this is an incredible wreck that NASCAR surely is going to diagnose in the R&D center to figure out what we can do better.”

Evaluating the consequences if the vehicle landed on the top of it, turning around in the air, Hamlin adds, “Let’s just say you land on our roof, right? There’s enough stretch in your belt that… Everyone’s pulled tight, but it’s not an eliminating factor. You still have some compression to go up.”

Preece has been discharged from the medical center after careful assessment after the spine-chilling wreck that sent his car flipping on the track.

Read More: NASCAR Community Comes Together to Say Goodbye to Cup Series Champ Kurt Busch 

Hamlin is reminded of an unforgettable experience at Charlotte

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Irrespective of the racing circuit, halos have turned out to be lifesavers for the drivers. Being a protective cover, it is crucial for the safety of one’s head and neck mostly. However, according to Denny Hamlin, the placement of halo bars in Next-Gen cars could need some changes that would add a bit of comfort as well.

“The halo bar where the winder net is, for some odd reason, was designed to stay closer to the driver’s head than what our previous car was.” disclosed Denny. ” It’s more sturdy, but without a doubt, it’s closer to our head. I don’t know how that bar responded to this wreck, you know I need to look at more pictures of it, and I’m sure we’ll get to see that. But yeah, there is a concern. I know when I put on my helmet, I have to be very careful not to unlatch the roof hatch, so it’s close.”

Recollecting the time when he was invited to be one of the test drivers in 2021, prior to the introduction of Next-Gen switch, Denny reveals the incident that compromised his trust on the safety of the roof, “I actually did it during that test at Charlotte, one of the very first next-gen tests. I put my helmet on and so I leave my helmet and my hands connected together, I don’t put them on separately. When I did, it unlatched my hatch and the hatch blew off in the first lap of testing. It came right out, that hatch is not rigid.”

Roof hatches have been an essential component of racing cars, helping the driver to exit the vehicle in emergency situations and has been made a permanent feature since 2017. On top of that roof flaps will be deployed whenever car spins backwards and air force pushes it upwards.

Hamlin has a Tupperware reference to explain the crash

Denny has a great ability to simplify the discussions about complex details through real life explanations. When Allen questions him about what could unravel for the driver in case, the car happens to land on its roof and how it affected the situation at Daytona, he says, “When the top of the car started crushing… You know what, this is like the Tupperware. My mom couldn’t get the top of the Tupperware off. But just squeeze the bottom, and the top will pop off.”

The group breaks into laughter as Jarred disputes Hamlin’s claim saying that what happened instead was that Denny tried to but failed at the trick. “ Well, give my mom a break. She had a very tough time. She’s like, look at this trick you taught me, you just gotta squeeze the bottom.” Hamlin replied.

“The seal is on the inside, not on the outside. Just squeeze it. Boom pops off. That’s what happened, I think, to his roof hatch. The top of the car hit the ground, compressed it, and boom popped out the roof hatch.” stated the 42-year-old as he conveyed that the future of the cars could imply them becoming heavier and the roof hatch adds an extra 100 pounds to it as well.

“I guarantee the roof hatch is gonna be all metal now. We gotta have our next gen 2.0 soon. It’s very flimsy. We always check right before I go out, make sure that this aluminium hatch device is secured so I think that the Tupperware top popped off his roof hatch, in my opinion.” says Denny Hamlin.

Another victim of the crashes at Daytona, Ryan Blaney on the hand claimed that NASCAR bringing in the front clip safety was one of the reasons that his crash turned out to be less damaging than it could have been. Safe to say that ever since the fatal crash of Dale Earnhardt in 2001, NASCAR has been exemplary in terms of driver safety.

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