NASCAR Penalties Mocked as “Boat Money” By Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin Amid Bubba Wallace and SHR Penalty Blowbacks

NASCAR fines and penalties are an every-week affair. With the amount of crashing and wrecking, and the occasional sucker-punching, that goes on in NASCAR, it is pretty obvious that there would be consequences to those actions. But certain drivers don’t agree too much with how those decisions are made.

NASCAR legends Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin discuss a host of issues and topics on Danica’s YouTube channel. Among those are the fines and penalties regularly doled out by NASCAR to teams and drivers.

Danica said, “The fines don’t really do that much. You kind of end up having to work it out anyway. The probations even, it’s all just kind of… I don’t know I’m yet to see what NASCAR does with that money that they make us pay them, and I’ve paid a couple hundred over the years.” Hamlin then added, “Yacht fuel, boat money (both laugh). Just to get to the Bahamas and back (both laugh).”

In 2016, Danica spoke about the hefty fines NASCAR had imposed on her team, Stewart-Haas Racing. For context – Tony Stewart had spoken about the lack of a lug nut policy in NASCAR; NASCAR changed its policy but kept the fine. Patrick then went on to say, “It seems extremely inappropriate to go ahead and follow through with (changes) and require five lug nuts but still maintain a fine for someone who questioned the very topic.” Her statement came at the back of $70,000 in fines in a little over 5 months.

Read More: Denny Hamlin Quotes Dale Earnhardt Jr to Defend “Selfishness” Required To Flourish In NASCAR – “Not The Greatest Teammate”

As Danica’s track record speaks, NASCAR has a really opaque policy, assuming there is one, for the imposition of fines. Reworking this would be the least expected from a global sports organization of NASCAR’s stature.

Bubba Wallace and Tony Stewart are among the most targeted

Danica and Denny have been subject to enormous fines and penalties over their respective careers but they aren’t the only ones. Driver and owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, Tony Stewart has copped a lot of fines himself.

Stewart has already paid $100,000 for a failed post-race inspection, which followed a $200,000 fine for “attempting to manipulate proceedings.”

Bubba Wallace has had his own share of troubles this season. For his incident with Kyle Larson, NASCAR finally decided to penalize him with a one-race suspension. This falls on the other end of the spectrum of NASCAR’s decision-making. For an incident so dangerous and blatant, can a one-race suspension suffice?

Watch This Story: Danica Patrick Reveals The “Jacka**” Driver She Hates More Than Denny Hamlin In NASCAR

For most, NASCAR has made very poor decisions in the past with regard to penalizing drivers. But with Bubba Wallace, they have topped their own acts – it is laughable.