By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – What next?
Denny Hamlin was flabbergasted with a penalty handed down by NASCAR on Thursday for an engine inspection violation that will have affects on he and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team now and into the Playoffs.
Hamlin’s race-winning engine from Bristol this spring was inadvertently torn down and rebuilt by Toyota Racing Development prior to NASCAR being able to inspect it and as such, the sanctioning body was left with no choice but to penalize them.
Driver and team were docked 75 points in the driver and owner standings, along with a deduction of 10 Playoff points. Crew chief Chris Gabehart was also fined $100,000.
As a result, he now finds himself sixth in the standings, some 103 points back of points leader Tyler Reddick. In addition, his Bristol win, which this penalty stems from, no longer counts toward Playoff eligibility.
“Certainly don’t feel any better than I did finding out in the moment,” Hamlin said Friday at Daytona. “It’s really hard. It’s really hard in this kind of format when you work so hard in the regular season to get all those bonus points. It’s really tough to see it just wiped away. But it’s part of it and we gotta just overcome.”
Hamlin explained that TRD executives alerted he and the team that they needed to meet with them on Wednesday, with the meeting taking place on Thursday prior to the penalty being announced by NASCAR.
“Just had questions, you know, trying to get some clarification on exactly how, what, when, and all that stuff,” Hamlin said of the details of the meeting. “But they obviously were very regrettable to have to give me that information when they did. I feel bad for ’em ’cause I knew that they did not want to have to bring me in a room and tell me that. It was, you know, we’re gonna have something that is gonna affect our season.”
As he continued to explain how all of this played out, Hamlin alluded to the long-lasting effect Thursday’s penalty could have on his team throughout their Playoff run.
“No point matters until it does,” Hamlin said. “That’s the truth is that it won’t matter until it does. The couple years that we’ve missed the cut from the final four, it’s been the Hail Melon and we’ve had the power steering break at Homestead, you know? So, it comes down to a couple points here and there. It just means that we’re gonna have to be even that much…
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