With just 5 races left to crown the champion, this 2024 Cup Series season has picked up a lot of steam. After all, a literal lawsuit has been crowding the NASCAR airwaves for the past few weeks. But rolling out of the Charlotte Roval, more than one storyline emerged off the back of 109 laps, taking back the action to where it belongs–the tracks.

From concerns raised by many over NASCAR picking and choosing their track violation penalties to Alex Bowman’s post-race DQ sending Hendrick fans into a frenzy, it was a day filled with controversy and infractions. But in the background of all that and everything in between, Denny Hamlin squared up against a unique situation. It turns out that senior NASCAR executives aren’t exactly the world’s best texters. As for the drivers, they might need to pay a lot more attention during those pre-race driver’s meetings to avoid future misinterpretations. 

Denny Hamlin reveals NASCAR’s mixed messages penalized Bubba Wallace

Denny Hamlin finished 14th at the end of the 2024 Bank of America Roval 400. He scored 24 points and is now sitting sixth in the updated standings for the next round of the Playoffs. Coincidentally, next Sunday, at the first race of the Round of 8 in Vegas, the #11 team will roll off the grid, eight points below the championship 4 cutline. 

But his day could’ve gone a lot worse, considering road courses aren’t exactly Hamlin’s strong suit. And this year, NASCAR reconfigured the Charlotte Road Course to birth even more “chaos” in the words of the #11 driver himself, pre-race. However, a new infield chute, a sharper Turn 7, and readjusted chicanes on both ends of the original oval layout were not as chaotic as so many expected. But the sharper esses before the start-finish line on the frontstretch resulted in some surefire controversy.

Bubba Wallace, Martin Truex Jr, and Michael McDowell—These three drivers had one thing in common on Sunday. They were all issued stop-and-go penalties for violating track limits on the frontstretch chicane. Meanwhile, the cars of William Byron and Brad Keselowski committed the same infraction at separate points in the race. NASCAR, however, did not penalize the #24 or the #6 for cutting the course.

The root of this contentious issue can be traced back to a day before the race when the sport’s sanctioning body replaced the 4-inch-tall turtle curbs with 2.25-inch-high rumble strips in Turn 16 after a few drivers grumbled about the ‘concussion-like’ impact on that section. To ensure that no cars cut corners on this section of the track, NASCAR made their track violation rules more stringent for the altered sections. As Denny Hamlin’s co-host Jared Allen explained on the October 14th episode of Actions Detrimental, “Early on in this race, NASCAR was enforcing their ‘rules’… You needed to have. I don’t even know if I’m going to get this right, four-tire or at least two tires on the pavement or the rumble strip. They couldn’t be in the blue at the same time.” 

Mind you, this is the same rule that got Bubba Wallace to serve a stop-and-go but not William Byron. But it turns out, even the drivers found themselves bewildered by the split-second curb adjustment on the ROVAL. After the #11 wheelman became aware of this clouded change in rules, he texted Series Managing Director Brad Moran at 11:09 AM, asking for clarification on the NASCAR comms chat. As it happened, Moran did not reply to Hamlin’s text until 2:07 PM. That’s when the #11 driver was already in his car, ready to compete.

But that wouldn’t be all. In his own words, Hamlin would reveal, “When we were all riding in those horse trailers, they got us penned up, like horses now. They put us on these trailers and they parade us around… I think they had 13 of us on each trailer, or 12 on each trailer. I had at least six or seven (drivers) ask me, ‘Hey, did they clarify what the rule was?’ So we did not know…” 

Understandably confused by the clarification process, Actions Detrimental producer, Travis questioned Denny Hamlin about the purpose of a driver’s meeting under such contentious circumstances. To quell the query, driver #11 swiftly replied, “Oh… it’s a charade. it’s there just for the people. It’s just for the VIPs….There’s not one driver listening to that video that they play.” 

Regardless, Jared Allen playfully suggested that Denny was deflecting the blame onto NASCAR for not paying attention himself during these driver meetings. Regarding the text from the Managing Director, Hamlin’s producer reminded him that the green flag waved at 2:37 AM, so he should have had around 30 minutes to see Moran’s message on the comms chat. But Hamlin reminded Travis, “So, I would have been at my car,” when it finally came in.

This discrepancy in communication does not provide a good look for the wider NASCAR community, especially after the (Damaged Vehicle Policy) DVP controversy the sport’s found itself in over the last few weeks. Brad Moran made a lot of noise in the fallout from that silly moment in the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs. But before NASCAR’s penalty for Bubba Wallace needed justification, Moran did his best to explain the sudden rule change to all the drivers’ pre-race.

Chaos at Charlotte? More like confusion in the driver’s seat

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Journalist Kyle Dalton revealed that in the drivers’ meeting, before the race, NASCAR played a video for those concerned with a clear iteration of the track violation rule: “You will be judged as missing or shortcutting any turn previously described when all four tires are on the non-track side of the red and white rumble strips (blue area) that define the apex of the turns.” Essentially, that means cars would receive a penalty if they went beyond track limits and cut the apex with none of their four tires remaining on the paved surface.

Bubba Wallace was the first to be judged guilty of this infraction. But as NBC’s Steve Letarte explained why he was being penalized on live TV, Wiliam Byron’s #24 car committed the same “mistake” one car-length behind Wallace in the replay. But the sport seemed to turn a blind eye to Byron’s track limits violation, since on the next lap, the #23 served a stop-and-go penalty, while William Byron ran scot-free and mustered himself a third-place finish. As a result, fans called foul on NASCAR’s intention, especially with that Anti-trust lawsuit from 23Xi Racing looming in the background.

But Managing Director of Racing Communications at NASCAR, Mike Forde clarified the issue, as soon as it went online on Twitter. On a tweet by a user named @Allthingsfast89, which read, “penalty for Bubba same frame nothing for Byron” accompanied with a screen grab of the exact moment when the #24 cuts the apex, Forde issued further clarifications. He retweeted the image, writing, “One, this is a dang impressive screen grab by Ed. Two, the 24’s front and rear lefts are touching the red/white strips. Very close, no doubt. But not a penalty. All four have to be in the ‘blue’ for it to be a penalty.”

Still, a few believe the reasoning does not hold good in the bigger picture. They assert that William Byron did, in fact, violate track limits, although there seems to be little that the collective could do to overturn the issue. When the dust finally settled, Bubba Wallace earned himself a top-10, his third-ever on a road course. Hence, like a wise man had once said, ‘All’s well that ends well.’ But did it really happen, as we got ready to leave behind another fantastic Charlotte ROVAL spectacle in our rearview? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.