NASCAR insider: Denny Hamlin’s 75-point engine penalty changed trajectory of his season

Denny Hamlin suffered a 75-point engine penalty toward the end of the season, which impacted his performance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. On The Teardown podcast, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic shared his thoughts on how the penalty impacted Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 team.

“The rule was the rule, and it was broken. There’s no arguing that. But it really effectively felt like it took the wind out of their sails,” Bianchi said. “They were not the same team the rest of the way. They were on their back foot pretty much throughout the entire playoffs, they never really looked like the team they were during the regular season.

“I think part of that is the fact they were down [14] playoff points they felt they should have had. That’s a lot. I mean that is a huge difference. The conversation in Round 1 in Atlanta and their strategy and anything like that, well you give them 14 additional points, that conversation goes out the window. Round 2 was a scramble, and Round 3 they get eliminated. It changed the complexion of their playoffs. A veteran driver who’s never won a championship before, the tail end of his career, maybe not have a lot more of these opportunities to win that championship, this team was well-positioned to do that.

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“Their mindset throughout the regular season was we’re going to get as many points as we can get, we want to win the regular season championship and we want to put ourselves in a spot come the playoffs where if we have a mechanical issue or some unfortunate luck befalls us, it’s not going to cripple our playoff hopes.”

Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 team were hit with an L2 penalty in August following an engine inspection violation. Toyota Racing Development admitted that the engine used in the Bristol race that Denny Hamlin won earlier in the season was rebuilt instead of inspected by NASCAR.

“Each race-winning engine must be inspected by NASCAR once the race team determines that its life cycle is complete,” a NASCAR statement read. “In this instance, prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection, Toyota Racing Development disassembled and rebuilt the No. 11’s Bristol-winning race engine. Per the NASCAR Rule Book, this violation results in an L2 penalty to the race team and driver. Toyota Racing Development self-reported this violation.”

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