Denny Hamlin: 'NASCAR Cup Series is full of snitches' with rule violations

Joey Logano was forced to start from the rear of the field and serve a pass-through penalty to begin Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway for having unapproved gloves.

The gloves did not meet “SFI specification,” violating rule 14.3.1.1 of the NASCAR Rule Book. NASCAR said that the glove was “altered” in order to gain a competitive advantage when blocking air with his hand.

Speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast Monday, Denny Hamlin discussed the penalty at length. Hamlin said that Logano likely got ratted out by another team who saw the glove before the race started. Hamlin said that the NASCAR Cup Series is “full of snitches.”

“I’m willing to say there was a whistleblower,” Hamlin said. “These teams tell on each other, for sure. For those of you who don’t know, teams — they call it a self-policing sport because when we’re sitting next to each other and watching videos of other cars — the NASCAR Cup Series is full of snitches. I mean, all over the place. They tattle tell. If they see something that someone is doing that is illegal or skirting the rule, they’ll tell the tower right away. They’ll send that to [senior vice president of racing innovation] John Probst or [senior Vice President of competition] Elton Sawyer and be like, ‘Oh, look at that.’ And they’ll say, ‘Oh, we’ll look into that.'”

Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano involved in Stage 2 wreck

The penalty didn’t impact Logano one bit, thanks to a Lap 2 caution while he was serving the pass-through penalty. Logano was right back on the lead lap and wasted no time making his way to the front. Logano, who had qualified second, had one of the fastest cars at Atlanta, leading 27 laps.

His bid for a win came to an end on Lap 160-of-260, when he threw an ill-advised block on Chris Buescher and caused a wreck which collected Hamlin. Logano finished the race 27th while Hamlin, who led 15 laps, finished 23rd. Buescher rallied to pick up a P9 finish, but made it clear after the race he wasn’t pleased with Logano.

“We were up there on the top had been up there a handful of laps, was rolling good,” Buescher said. “We were just there and there wasn’t space and ended up wiping us out. So, yeah it just, I guess it’s a judgment call when it’s close like that.

“I haven’t seen it back yet but from my understanding, it was coming from the bottom all the way across the other two lanes all the way to try to cover the top and it’s just a long way to go. Not real thrilled with that.”