Denny Hamlin: Bristol-winning engine 'slipped through the cracks' at TRD leading to penalty

Denny Hamlin shared more on the engine used for his No. 11 car at Bristol that led to NASCAR hitting him with a penalty. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin explained how Toyota Racing Development (TRD) missed the error.

“It obviously slipped through the cracks somehow,” Hamlin said. “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.”

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Hamlin and his No. 11 team were found in violation of Sections 14.7.1.E&F and 14.7.1.1.B&E of the NASCAR Rule Book, per NASCAR.com. Section 14.7.1.E states that race-winning engines “will be long block sealed by NASCAR and must be completely inspected by NASCAR before the engine may be disassembled by the team. If the team chooses to use the long block sealed race-winning engine again before being inspected, the engine must be used in the same vehicle number the next time it is used.” Section 14.7.1.F states the “long block engine assembly seals of a long block sealed engine must not be altered, removed or replaced.”

Section 14.7.1.1.B&E states “seals must not be removed without prior approval by NASCAR,” and “if a race-winning engine is sealed and presented for post-race inspection at a later date with damaged, altered or missing seals, an L2 Penalty will be assessed.”

TRD issues apology to Denny Hamlin

When the penalty was announced, TRD released a statement. “As the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD (Toyota Racing Development) is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race,” David Wilson, president of TRD USA, said in a statement. “Despite procedures being in place, Denny’s race-winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rule book.

“Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine. We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”