Denny Hamlin considers how NASCAR can fix cars wrecking each other in light of Truck Series Championship

Denny Hamlin believes NASCAR needs to find a way to police drivers wrecking each other in light of what transpired last weekend during the Truck Series finale.

Hamlin didn’t bite his tongue on the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, as he elaborated on why he thought the ending to the championship-deciding race was a joke.

“The Truck Series, what a s***show that was, I mean what a s***show.” Hamlin said. “It was f***ing terrible, I don’t know how else to put it. It was just not good. It was not a good look. Honestly, it’s kind of old news now we can kind of forget about it. But man what a terrible precedent that set just for how to race for a championship and what not just generally speaking just how guys drove each other – I don’t know why they thought, it’s the last race, so I can just grind all my axes right here in this race. 

“A lot of the wrecks weren’t even some championship contender guys that are going for it, they’re just a part-time guy wrecking a full-time guy or a full-time guy wrecking a part-time guy. I just don’t get it, they lost their brains. Maybe they watched the Xfinity race from the previous week and saw that it was okay and now we’re doing this on the regular, so. Yeah, just not a good look. You know I worry about the long-term stuff about if you do nothing about it.”

Alas, Hamlin is of the thought-process that it boils down to NASCAR doing something about it, proving why they’re one of the top racing series in the world.

“It’s not just that series. We saw it in Xfinity. Same thing last week. Then the Cup. I just mentioned, it’s going to happen in The Clash,” Hamlin added. “Unless the adult, which is NASCAR. I’m calling them the adult. Says to the children, ‘No. That’s not how you’re supposed to do this. We’re a professional stock car series. Act accordingly.'”

Evidently, Hamlin believes it should be a case-by-case basis, where NASCAR needs to send drivers who wreck others on purpose to the rear. Essentially, it’s a judgment call, likened to balls and strikes in baseball.

“It’s not going to be a regular occurrence, because when a driver realizes they’ll have to go to the back, and their race is over, they’ll stop it. It’s self-policing in that way,” Hamlin stated. “Instead, the old Bill France way, ‘Well it’ll self-police itself,’ that’s what’s happening out there. Someone’s bumping someone, and then someone’s taking it to the next level, and wrecking the s*** out of them. That’s what’s going on on the track. That’s self-policing. That’s what’s going on.

“These guys aren’t doing it for no reason. It’s because that person might’ve ran them slightly up the track the lap before. So let’s just crash them.”

Nevertheless, it can get sticky with that system. But Hamlin lamented that specific circumstances need to be in place for NASCAR to make the call.

“It needs to be blatant and obvious. There’s many instances where it’s blatant and obvious. Those are the ones that you make the call on. It’s a ball and a strike, just like everything else,” the veteran said.

Time will tell, but Denny Hamlin makes some good points. We’ll see if NASCAR decides to make a chance moving forward.