Denny Hamlin breaks down what led to Matt Crafton, Nick Sanchez fight

Denny Hamlin decided to break down the on-track incident between Matt Crafton and Nick Sanchez at Talladega over the weekend, which led to the post-race brawl that got both drivers fined.

For context, NASCAR announced the punishments for the drivers on Tuesday, after the two getting into a bit of a brawl in the garage area. There was a video captured at the end of the event, where Sanchez yelled threats towards Crafton with blood covering his face. Then, the NASCAR rookie driver claimed the three-time champion had “sucker punched” him.

Crafton was fined $25,000 by NASCAR for his actions, while Sanchez was fined $5,000. In the meantime, Hamlin took his his Actions Detrimental podcast to evaluate the on-track wreck, where he explained he’s didn’t understand the frustration, as these things happen at Talladega.

“Crafton and Sanchez. Crafton’s been in the sport, or he’s been in the Truck Series for like, 20 years or something like that. He got into it with Sanchez, who I believe this is his first year in the series. I looked at the wreck, let’s break down why they were upset in the first place,” started Hamlin. “I was looking at why Crafton was so upset. I mean, he got wrecked and he parked his truck in Sanchez’s pit. I don’t know. Whatever, with that move. And then, you’re on a speedway, first of all. Wrecks happen on super-speedways all the time. Nobody means to. They just kind of misjudge things, when it usually happens. No one is intentionally wrecking anyone on a super-speedway. Then I looked, and I saw what Sanchez was doing. He was going middle. He was going middle of the track, and he actually was there for a second and then Crafton was like, ‘No, you’re not going middle. I’m going to come down here and block that,’ and they collided.

“So I don’t see where Sanchez really did anything wrong there. So as far as the on-track, it’s just kind of, I don’t put it on anyone. I don’t think that that’s anyone’s fault necessarily. That’s just a normal super-speedway wreck, where someone’s trying to hit a hole, it’s there and then oh, it’s not, because it got closed. So I didn’t see anything egregious there, for sure.”

There you have it, Denny Hamlin is simply chalking this one up to super-speedway racing. You can’t say he’s not wrong after watching the replay, but that isn’t going to quell the fire in Matt Crafton or Nick Sanchez, as both felt miffed by the wreck over the weekend.