Denny Hamlin sides with Martin Truex Jr.: 'Not enough accountability' for careless driving
Denny Hamlin said Monday he agrees with Martin Truex Jr.’s stance on the lack of respect among drivers late in races and during green-white-checkered finishes.
Hamlin, speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, said that drivers are “running over each other for one spot,” adding that there’s not enough accountability for careless driving.
“I think Martin’s had this gripe for quite some time,” Hamlin said. “It’s different now than what it used to be. There’s certainly not a whole lot of respect amongst the drivers, especially in these green-white-checkered situations. We see it over and over, year after year and it just keeps getting a little worse each year. There’s just no regard anymore. If there’s a quarter of a car width wide, someone’s gonna jam it in there in Turn 1 and if you spin, that’s not their problem.
“There’s just not enough accountability for that. If you think that someone caused a wreck, then you need to self-police this thing and make sure that they know that this was for that incident or whatever it might be. But certainly, it seems it’s not going well at the end of these races when it comes to green-white-checkereds. Guys are running over each other for one spot, but there’s not much you can do to change it. Martin just saying, ‘I’m done, I’m out of here,’ is just quintessential Martin Truex.”
Truex was upset after Sunday’s Round of 16 race at Watkins Glen, in which he finished P20, his seventh consecutive finish of 20th or worse. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver felt like he got run over late in the race and didn’t appreciate it.
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“It’s just crazy that all these races always come down to this,” Truex said. “I don’t really understand how guys can call their self the best in the world when they just drive through everyone on restarts at the end of these races. It’s very frustrating but it is what it is these days, so I’m out of here.”
Denny Hamlin’s crew chief takes shot at late-race chaos in NASCAR
Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s crew chief, echoed much of the same sentiment after the race. He told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the “optics are starting to turn into bumper cars.” Gabehart lamented the lack of actual racing taking place late in races.
“You see it every week, saw it yesterday in the Xfinity race,” Gabehart said. “Anytime a caution comes anymore after the last stage caution in any of these NASCAR races now. You just see a mess. And you know, I guess quantitatively, I’ve never raced with this much stakes on the line as a driver. And that’s great. It makes for great sport. It means everybody’s got to push really hard.
“There’s a lot on the line, I get it. But is sure seems like the optics are starting to turn into bumper cars and that’s not racing. I don’t know what you do about it, but golly it looks like a mess.”