Denny Hamlin wants NASCAR to send drivers to the rear for incidents like Corey Heim, Carson Hocevar wreck
After a day to think about it, Denny Hamlin still thinks that NASCAR has to step in when drivers do things like Corey Heim did in the Truck Series championship. Heim didn’t just retaliate against Carson Hocevar mid-race, he did it while the two other championship drivers were racing clean with a few laps to go.
Denny Hamlin, in his role as a veteran driver and a podcaster now, has a thing or two to say about the Truck Series chaos. Hocevar spun Heim. Then Heim decided to wall his rival with just a few laps remaining in the race.
It effectively took Grant Enfinger from champion to runner-up and moved Ben Rhodes ahead. Even though Enfinger got multiple restarts in overtime, the damage was done. Rhodes came away champion.
Hamlin was asked by Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports if he wants drivers sent to the rear by NASCAR. His answer? Yes.
“Yeah. That’s what they do in the local short tracks I don’t understand, it shouldn’t be that hard,’ Hamlin said. “I guess the fine line is – for instance, someone said, what about Carson would that be an infraction? No that would be a racing incident. Some of these are blatant enough that you can see that someone hit someone and they kept pushing, those are the types of incidents you just penalize. But we’re never going to get there I don’t think NASCAR is ever going to make that change. My opinion of it is that it’s, it’s not even a short-term gain anymore. Sure it gets people on social media talking but we’re not having more viewers because of this chaos that we’re creating.”
Denny Hamlin and others talk about “respect”
Denny Hamlin has been involved in a number of incidents, this year included. This year though, there has been an increased number of drivers and others in the industry talk about “respect” on the track.
You have old-school guys. Kyle Busch and Hamlin included. They have a different way of racing than the younger drivers. Guys like Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar are aggressive. They arent afraid to battle you hard and maybe even toe the line. At times, that means they go over the line.
When Corey Heim doored Hocevar into the wall, it was more than retaliation. That’s the real difference. It was a championship race, drivers were battling it out cleanly up front. Don’t get involved like this. Not only that, it set off series of cautions that extended this race by a ridiculous amount.
The race started just after 10:00 PM EST and didn’t end until 1:00 AM. A 150-mile race, folks! That should never take three hours. Perhaps NASCAR needs to send drivers to the rear just to make a point, Denny Hamlin might be right here.