NASCAR insider on Denny Hamlin penalty: 'It's a multi-process failure'

NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic discussed Denny Hamlin’s devastating engine penalty during the latest episode of The Teardown.

The penalty, which was out of Hamlin and the No. 11 team’s hands for the most part, docked him 75 driver and owner points, as well as a stiff 10 playoff points, as well. Gluck still can’t believe the situation as a whole.

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“I can’t stop thinking about how this mistake could have happened,” Gluck prefaced. “Like, I mean, where does it go in the process where it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, this is a sealed engine. But, you know, we’ll just tear it down and rebuild it.’”

In response, Bianchi called out the multiple levels in which Hamlin’s team was failed by both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, and how it all contributed to the penalty the No. 11 team received.

“It’s a multi-process failure, because somebody at Joe Gibbs Racing had to take that engine and box it up and ship it across the country before NASCAR inspected it, which doesn’t really make sense,” Bianchi responded. “You think it was going to probably stay at Joe Gibbs Racing until NASCAR came over and inspected it, right? Instead, it gets shipped out to California, where somebody at California opens up this crate, they look at the engine, it’s got the seal on it, and they decide to, ‘Ah, I’m gonna unseal it.’ Like, it is a multi-process failure along the way.

“It sucks, and it’s really, and again, cruelly unfair to the No. 11 team, who’ve been really great this year, who put a focus on having success during the regular season for all the reasons we talked about earlier, because of the points and what it gives and the rewards, because when they come to the playoffs, they don’t want to have to have to rely on somebody not riding the wall or a parts penalty.

“They wanted a bigger safety net in case something happened. And now, instead of their net that they’ve built up, which was pretty good size, it just shrunk to almost nothing.”

It’ll be fascinating to see how it changes Denny Hamlin’s driving-style over the course of the playoffs, but the No. 11 team will still be among the top contenders for the NASCAR Cup Series title in 2024, regardless of the penalty they received last week.