Denny Hamlin rips NASCAR DVP policy, arbitrary rule changes in-season after Talladega

Denny Hamlin ripped NASCAR and their decision to modify their damaged vehicle policy over the weekend during the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

After the “Big One” occurred with five laps remaining, where a record 28 cars were involved, several cars were stranded in the infield of Turn 3. Under the policy adopted in 2017, drivers who leave their cars are ineligible to finish the race. That forced playoff drivers Chase Elliott and Chase Briscoe to remain inside their cars in hopes of getting back to pit road to undergo minimal repairs.

NASCAR decided to give both a tow back to pit road, and they were able to get back out on the racetrack and meet minimum speed.

The sanctioning body has previously said that under the DVP, unless you have four flat tires, a tow back to pit road would mean your race is over. That didn’t happen in this case, leading to mass chaos and confusion inside the garage and among the competitors. 

While Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, tried to explain the change the best he could, citing a goal of “not putting good cars or good trucks out of the race,” Hamlin didn’t want to hear it, as he responded during the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“I hear (Elton Sawyer), and I still don’t agree with it,” Hamlin explained. “I understand, let me give you his perspective, ‘The DVP was never intended to take capable cars out of the race.’ I understand that. However, many capable cars have ended their race — I had no body damage at Daytona, but I had two broken toe-links. When they tried pushing me, my car kept going in circles, so I said, ‘It’s over,’ window-net down, ‘I’m out.’ Had they towed me to the pit box, we could’ve fixed those toe-links and kept on digging. So, the problem is, you can’t change it now, because other people’s seasons have been decided by this rule in one way, shape or form. You can’t change it in the middle of the playoffs. You can’t change your mindset in the middle of the playoffs. There’s too many people affected.

“We’re already in a bullshit round that we’ve had one legitimate race track. We’re going to go to a Roval that’s just going to be absolute ridiculousness. You’re deciding people’s seasons by making these choices, and it’s just not fair to everyone. Make it fair to everyone by, ‘You know what, it doesn’t matter who you are, who you’re with — we go by the rule.’ While Josh Berry’s incident last week was stupid, it was by the rules. So you’ve got to live with, ‘It’s by the rules,’ and that’s why Josh Berry said after the race last week, ‘They better not be towing anyone to the pit box over there. They better not be.’ … This weekend, they did not play by the rules. They changed them, and they changed their mindset, and didn’t notify one team member of that change of mindset.”

It’s easy to see why Hamlin and other drivers in the field were upset with some of their peers benefitting from NASCAR’s last-minute decision-making. They’ve been burned by the DVP before, and NASCAR didn’t come to their aid.

It’ll be interesting to see how the sport’s decision-makers move forward with the DVP in the coming weeks, and if they adhere to the new standard set at Talladega over the weekend. We certainly know how Denny Hamlin feels about the matter though.