NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin has had a tumultuous week, characterizing his series of mishaps as an “absolute disaster.”
His recent struggles include a severe engine penalty and a damaging crash at Daytona—both of which have critically dented his aspirations in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship.
Whilst speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Hamlin explained:
“The last five days have been an absolute disaster on my end. When you think I can’t get any unluckier, here we come. The cloud falls over. I told you I’m the black cat of death cursed.
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“It’ll just make it more exciting when we have to overcome all this and finally do win a championship this year hopefully. It certainly is not ideal. With this three-race season about to start, certainly, I’m in a vulnerable spot right now in points.”
The immediate setback stemmed from a serious infringement connected to Hamlin’s No. 11 team and their handling of a victorious engine at Bristol. Instead of surrendering the engine for NASCAR’s mandatory post-race inspection, it was mistakenly rebuilt.
Toyota Racing Development (TRD), which manages the technical specifications for Joe Gibbs Racing’s vehicles, admitted fault and communicated the error to NASCAR authorities.
The repercussions were severe: Hamlin and his team were stripped of 75 points and 10 playoff points. Moreover, his crew chief, Chris Gabehart, faced a hefty $100,000 fine, and Hamlin’s win at Bristol was invalidated for playoff considerations.
Hamlin reflected:
“It obviously slipped through the cracks somehow. Things happen, and certainly nobody wanted this to happen certainly within TRD. The car that has the most points that was sitting in the best spot to win them a championship.
“Surely they didn’t want this to happen, but it did. They wanted to make sure they played by the rules and reported it and try to see if there’s any way we could rectify it, but there just wasn’t. When you got red seal sitting on the ground, you’ve hurt the integrity process of inspection.”
NASCAR Cup Series: Current Standings
- Tyler Reddick – 823 points
- Kyle Larson – 806 points
- Chase Elliott – 805 points
- Ryan Blaney – 755 points
- William Byron – 743 points
- Christopher Bell – 737 points
- Brad Keselowski – 718 points
- Denny Hamlin – 712 points
- Martin Truex Jr – 695 points
- Ty Gibbs – 676 points
- Chris Buescher – 658 points
- Alex Bowman – 648 points
- Bubba Wallace – 637 points
- Ross Chastain – 631 points
- Joey Logano – 586 points
- Kyle Busch – 552 points
- Daniel Suárez – 527 points
- Chase Briscoe – 514 points
- Austin Cindric – 486 points
- Todd Gilliland – 480 points
- Carson Hocevar – 467 points
- Michael McDowell – 459 points
- Josh Berry – 448 points
- Noah Gragson – 426 points
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 404 points
- Erik Jones – 381 points
- Ryan Preece – 368 points
- Daniel Hemric – 365 points
- Austin Dillon – 360 points
- Justin Haley – 356 points
- John H. Nemechek – 343 points
- Corey LaJoie – 335 points
- Zane Smith – 316 points
- Harrison Burton – 306 points
- Kaz Grala – 166 points
- Cody Ware – 98 points
- Joey Hand – 43 points
- Jimmie Johnson – 39 points
- Derek Kraus – 32 points
- David Ragan – 17 points
- Kamui Kobayashi – 8 points
- Will Brown – 6 points
- Cam Waters – 2 points
