The inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Wide World Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday (June 5) certainly created some drama. Most notably, between Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin. Chastain got into Hamlin in the second stage of the event and sent the No. 11 Toyota into the wall.
Damage and repairs put Hamlin a few laps down and he was never able to recover. He was, however, still on the track and that allowed him to seek revenge on Chastain for ruining his day. Hamlin slowed down multiple times on the track to try and either wreck Chastain or make it difficult to pass him.
Hamlin had a right to be upset, but did his antics go too far? Vito Pugliese and Anthony Damcott debate whether NASCAR should have parked Hamlin.
Hands Off Hamlin
When the wrecking ball that was Chastain was careening through the field Sunday, one of his first victims was Hamlin.
Hamlin made significant contact with the wall, leaving him with a bent suspension and a ruined afternoon. It was quite the fall from grace having won the remaining crown jewel race on his resume, the Coca-Cola 600, last weekend. Relegated to riding around for the rest of the day, Hamlin waited on Chastain a couple of times, running him down almost into the backstretch grass.
At that point the call came from NASCAR saying, “Okay, that’s enough…”
Hamlin’s response was a laugh and, “Yeah, right…”
On lap 103, Chastain made contact with Elliott, which also involved the No. 23 car of Bubba Wallace, which is owned by Hamlin. On the ensuing restart, Elliott ran Chastain up the track in turn 2, while Hamlin took a swipe at him as well. With the constant harping on safety, and Carson Hocevar suffering still yet undisclosed injuries from the last lap of Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series race, should NASCAR have parked one of its top tier drivers (and owners…) in its premier series?
No.
While we are a bit removed from the “Boys, have at it…” era of NASCAR — some of which has been brought…
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