When Brad Keselowski’s Ford Mustang pulled off with no power in the Esses with 12 laps to go, it unfortunately spoiled what would’ve been a fascinating endgame over who had sufficient fuel to make the finish to a thus-far excellent stock car road course race.
Could anybody beat race dominator Tyler Reddick – who had the fastest car but was clearly managing his pace to save fuel? Last year’s Sonoma winner Daniel Suarez was on an absolute tear, chasing him down, just as the race went yellow for Keselowski needing a tow.
But what happened next over the remaining race distance was a really disappointing ending for any purist of the sport, one that Denny Hamlin – both a driver and (race-winning) team boss in this event – labelled on his Actions Detrimental podcast as a ‘S*** Show with No Respect’.
Hamlin rewatched the race and decided to “call out the people who don’t get enough attention for being dumb ****s at the end”. He further clarified it as drivers “who were coming into the pack with reckless abandon and not giving a shit about anyone else around them”.
He was clear to make sure they were the cause of the contact, not being pushed from behind.
Drivers line up at COTA in the restart zone
Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
Hamlin pointed the finger at Austin Cindric, Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain (twice!), Joey Logano and Chase Briscoe as being late-race wreck initiators. Of his own approach, he explained: “I try my best not to be on this list of idiots being responsible for wrecks, but if you get the shitty end of the stick you can decide you’re not going to be the guy getting used up next time.” Hamlin later admitted he was ready to wreck Jordan Taylor if he’d got the chance!
After the race, Formula 1 interloper Jenson Button – who Hamlin rated as the cleanest driver out there – summed it up well: “I have to say I enjoyed the race… 60% of it. The other 40% of it was silly. The amount we were hitting each other in Turn 1, it feels we can do better.”
Hamlin concurred: “I think it’s a bad look. It shouldn’t take an hour to run the last 10 laps of the race. We can’t be trusted, clearly. Kimi [Raikkonen, who returned to the series for his second Cup start] said at the airport ‘it’s stupid, it’s bumper cars, it’s ridiculous, I don’t like it’.
“I thought it was an Indy Road Course problem, but it’s anywhere you have an extended distance from the…
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