Denny Hamlin: NASCAR ‘did not like what they saw’ during controversial Richmond finish

Denny Hamlin believes that NASCAR could have something to say about the controversial finish at Richmond Raceway on Sunday. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin spoke on NASCAR’s reaction to Austin Dillon wrecking him and Joey Logano to win the Cook Out 400.

“You can look at it and say that [NASCAR] did not like what they saw,” Hamlin said. “Elton [Sawyer] was a competitor himself. If you’re Elton, and you’re me or the 22 [Logano], how do you feel about it? You just got wiped out by someone that intentionally crashed you.”

NASCAR may not like what it saw, but will Dillon be punished for his actions. While speaking to reporters after the race, Sawyer, NASCAR’s VP of competition, revaled if Dillon crossed the line on Sunday.

“Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time. You always hear, ‘Where’s the line, did someone cross the line?’ I would say the last lap was awful close to the line, we’ll take a look at all of the available resources from audio to video, listen to spotters, we’ll listen to crew chiefs and drivers and if anything rises to a level that we feel like we need to penalize then we’ll do that on Tuesday,” Sawyer said.

What happened on Sunday night is not good for racing, but it grabs the attention of the sports world. On the podcast, Hamlin pushed back on the idea that incidents like the one at Richmond are helping grow the sport.

Denny Hamlin does not beleive the Richmond incident is good for racing

“It already is in the format,” Hamlin said. “We have eliminations style and all this other stuff. I think that NASCAR is trying to fabricate these exciting moments through eliminations. And the sample size of a championship just keeps getting smaller and smaller. You’re not fooling our core fanbase that follows us. The millions that follow us every week, you’re not gonna fool them. … A new fan that likes it, A, they’re not gonna see that pretty often. But you still can have highlights on ‘SportsCenter’ like when we had a three-wide photo finish [at Atlanta]. Why does it have to be, ‘Hey, look how lawless we are?’

“It just — anyone can tune in to watch a demolition derby. But you’re watching a professional sport that has professional officials, and you have rules against this. … I think we’ve built up a reputation over time certainly that would say it’s a bunch of rowdies and we’re demolition derby at times. Look at all the crashes we have. I mean that’s natural racing, but we’ve set it up through double-wide restarts, Green-White Checkered finishes. We’ve allowed it to get this far and show me some information or data that shows that’s growing our sport.”

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