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DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 07: Denny Hamlin, Driver of the #11 NASCAR Next Gen car, talks with a team member in the garage during the NASCAR Cup Series test at Daytona International Speedway on September 07, 2021 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 07: Denny Hamlin, Driver of the #11 NASCAR Next Gen car, talks with a team member in the garage during the NASCAR Cup Series test at Daytona International Speedway on September 07, 2021 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
The 11th round of the NASCAR Cup Series saw Chase Elliott cross the Chequered flag before anyone else. The Hendrick Motorsports driver finally won a race despite leading the championship for a long time. However, it was not all flowery for Denny Hamlin.
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The rescheduled race at Dover Motor Speedway saw Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin and Kaulig Racing driver AJ Allmendinger lose their respective crew chiefs. JGR chief Chris Gabehart and Kaulig’s Matt Swiderski are suspended for four weeks until Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
Talking about this, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver conveyed, “The penalty is dramatic for the team even before you levy all those other stuffs. So we can’t race with a loose wheel. We have five nuts, you know you could look around. Now these things just fall off because you have just one nut. And again it’s for the gun (wheel gun) that’s not just powerful. It’s very very difficult.”
Some of the chatter this week is whether a driver with a loose wheel should try to back up on pit road. Denny Hamlin explains that would not have been a good idea for him at Dover as well as comments on the harshness of the penalty. pic.twitter.com/N6evNZxVtK
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) May 8, 2022
“When I talk to the pit crew guys you know it’s just so hard to know how much torque you have on. Every gun you get is different, so it’s a very difficult box we put in but certainly, from a selfish perspective and even as a team owner I mean our pit crews right about JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), their department’s Crew Chief is gone for four weeks and we had crew issues over there, to begin with, and now we lost two of those guys. So it’s not a good year for luck for myself personally.” further stated the 23XI Racing Co-owner.
What insisted Denny Hamlin make those comments?
Denny recently opened up on the crew chief suspensions when NASCAR was in Darlington. What caused the crew chief to get suspended? The race at Dover saw Denny go for a pit stop after the conclusion of Stage 1. The resulted pit stop saw Hamlin’s car lose the left front tire and roll down the track at the end of pit road.
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Moreover, AJ Allmendinger lost his front right tire, which brought caution at Lap 325. However, according to NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass, Joe Gibbs Racing appealed to NASCAR to withdraw the suspension.
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