NASCAR insiders reveal if appeal is expected from Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 team after massive penalty
Denny Hamlin and his No. 11 team were hit with a massive penalty by NASCAR and likely won’t appeal the decision. On social media, Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports and Jeff Gluck of The Athletic explained why an appeal from Hamiln and Joe Gibbs Racing is not happening.
“No reason to appeal,” Pockrass wrote on X when responding to a fan. “The reason the timing is so late is that TRD must have just realized that the winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly rebuilt instead of being inspected by NASCAR and told NASCAR about it.”
Gluck also responded to a fan on X who said the penalty alters Hamlin’s season. “Seems pointless. This is about as black and white as it gets,” Gluck wrote. “Winning engines must be submitted for inspection before being torn down. This one wasn’t. Automatic penalty. Bad break for Hamlin/JGR because of Toyota’s error, but that’s the rule.”
The team was penalized for violating engine inspection requirements. Hamlin was and team owner Joe Gibbs were each docked 75 points and 10 playoff points. Crew chief Chris Gabehart was fined $100,000. After the penalty was announced, Toyota Racing Development issued a statement explaining why Hamlin and his team were penalized.
Toyota takes blame for penalty against Denny Hamlin’s team
“As the engine builder for our partner NASCAR Cup Series teams, TRD (Toyota Racing Development) is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre- and post-race,” David Wilson, president of TRD USA, said in a statement. “Despite procedures being in place, Denny’s race-winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rule book.
“Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine. We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”
Along with losing points, Hamlin’s win at Bristol no longer counts toward eligibility for the playoffs. The 43-year-old is now sixth in the regular-season standings instead of third which eliminates him from contention to win the regular-season championship. Hamlin will still be in the playoffs as he has won two additional Cup Series races this year.