Denny Hamlin defends NASCAR cautions in the name of driver safety

There’s at least one person who believes NASCAR got it right by throwing a caution during the overtime portion of the Ambetter Health 400 in Atlanta on Sunday night: Denny Hamlin.

Well, he may not be the only one.

“Listen, there’s only 36 people that want that thing, that caution, thrown,” Denny Hamlin said on the Actions Detrimental podcast. “And they’re all sitting in the driver seats. I understand all the millions of people that say, ‘Let that b*tch run green. But you can’t do it, guys. Somebody, seriously, and it could be your favorite driver, will get really, really hurt.”

A wreck back from the leaders on Sunday caused the race to finish under caution, with Christopher Bell claiming the win ahead of Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson. It could have been another three-wide finish in Atlanta.

Instead, it was an anti-climactic end result.

But that’s how it’s supposed to go, Denny Hamlin pointed out. If there’s a wreck that puts people at risk, the caution flag must come out.

“A caution is an unsafe condition,” Denny Hamlin said. “That is the definition. And that is an unsafe condition. Let’s forget the past. They’re 1-0. Let’s start the trend of correct calls this week.”

That’s where some of the discussion has been generated from. NASCAR has seemingly been inconsistent about when to throw the caution flag. At Daytona Duels and in the closing lap of the Daytona 500, NASCAR opted not to throw the caution flag despite a wreck. The races finished green.

The organization deemed those good enough to keep racing on. Sunday at Atlanta? Not so much.

Still, Denny Hamlin doubled down on his take.

“It was the right call,” Hamlin said. “Good call? Just depends on who you ask. If you ask the fans who want entertainment, no — it was not a good call in their eyes. But I can assure you there’s not a driver in the field that would want that race to stay green, given the scenarios that were going on.

“You keep these races green, and someone will end up getting hurt. There’s just too much opportunity and the drivers are way too vulnerable when they’re sitting in the racetrack and then cars have to go by them full speed to gain spots. That’s just not a good scenario for anyone. The race had to end under caution.”