Jeff Burton Breaks Down the Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe Incident

The NASCAR Cup Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course was quite a chaotic one, especially when it came to the restarts. In a recent video analysis, former driver Jeff Burton decided to do a breakdown of all the restarts, especially the Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin incident.

On Lap 40, the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott led the pack. Behind them, everybody jostled for position, even going three-wide or four-wide on occasion. Surprisingly, they were all pretty civil and managed to navigate the first corner without much trouble. However, when they tackled the chicanes, one of the big losers was Daniel Suarez, who carried a little too much speed.

Burton continued, “Immediately leading the GEICO restart, both drivers [Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe] have done a good job. Then on the outside, three-wide effort, but on the front row, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe side-by-side. Hamlin runs long and then runs Briscoe in the grass.”

What did Burton say about the Chase Briscoe-Denny Hamlin incident?

According to the former driver, Briscoe should have served his penalty. Instead, the rookie driver was utterly focused on the fact that a win was within striking distance. On the other hand, a win-starved Denny Hamlin was also getting desperate. In the end, Briscoe bumped Hamlin and dumped him out of race contention.

Naturally, Hamlin was furious, because Briscoe took him out of the race. In the end, Briscoe got his well-deserved penalty, and that left a delighted AJ Allmendinger to eventually take the checkered flag. Had circumstances played out differently and Briscoe taken his penalty earlier, Hamlin could have won.

That would mean that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver would finally break his 2021 win jinx. As a bonus, he could have either re-overtaken Kyle Larson for the championship lead or inched closer. Either way, it would have firmly secured his playoff qualification.

READ MORE: Chase Briscoe Recalls Hilarious Story Where his Father’s Team Forgot to Bring the Car