Denny Hamlin addresses possible NASCAR punishment for Chevy teams after Martinsville controversy

In the wake of a controversial NASCAR Cup Series finish at Martinsville that decided the drivers in the Championship 4, questions have abounded about the role that manufacturers play in races when it comes to potential teaming or collusion.

The way the race unfolded, it certainly appeared that two distinct sets of events happened that might have been considered such.

First, the Chevrolet cars of Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain appeared to block the track to keep fellow Chevrolet driver William Byron from ceding further positioning in the final stages of the race. Second, Christopher Bell got a remarkably easy pass on fellow Toyota driver Bubba Wallace.

For his part, Wallace said after the race that he felt he had a tire going down, which was the reason for his rapid deceleration.

In any event, it raised questions about whether NASCAR could have taken action against either manufacturer.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what you do about it,” driver Denny Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “Fine them. Manufacturer/owner series points. Because the manufacturers really do care about that quite a bit. But we’ve got to do something to reel this back in, because it’s happening way, way too often.”

As it happened, NASCAR penalized the teams. The crew chief and spotter for each team was suspended, along with one team executive, while the team was also fined $100,000 and docked 50 driver points.

At least one NASCAR insider said the penalty wasn’t stiff enough, and Hamlin voiced his concerns about the difficulty in policing the manufacturers.

“The manufacturers, I’m part of one, but they ruined superspeedway racing,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know what you do about this, because I mean NASCAR’s not going to do anything with the manufacturers, because that is their bread and butter. They do not want to do anything that upsets manufacturers, because they’ve been trying for a decade now or better to get another one in our sport and they certainly cannot afford for one to leave.”

As for the idea of collusion itself in NASCAR, Hamlin explained that in his experience there’s no such thing that occurs. Certainly not explicitly, anyway.

“What we’re doing here, for those listening, is we are speculating,” Hamlin said. “The only thing I can tell you for a fact, because I am part of the Toyota Racing, is Toyota Racing never, not once this week, told 23XI to do anything for JGR. They were not involved whatsoever. I’ve never been, I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a conversation saying, ‘If this happens then you have to do this.’ They’ve never said that as a manufacturer. Even on superspeedways.

“They’ve left it up to the teams, ‘You guys figure this out. We’re going to provide you what we provide you, but we hope you work together,’ but that’s it. There’s never been any rules, and I can only speak for Toyota, because I’m part of it. There’s never been any rules that Toyota has laid out to say, ‘This is what we want you to do.’ Ever.”