Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports
When Denny Hamlin got called into a meeting at Joe Gibbs Racing on Thursday morning and was greeted by the team owner, Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson and Senior Vice President Tyler Gibbs, no relation, the news was only going to be bad.
Hamlin and the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 team was being hit with a major penalty by NASCAR over engine seal regulation violations. Hamlin would be docked 75 points, 10 playoff points and crew chief Chris Gabehart was being fined $100,000.
As it turns out, it was clerical error by Toyota Racing Development, who rebuilt an engine that needed to be inspected by NASCAR before it was broken down and reconstructed. The rules are the rules, and Hamlin was dealt a major blow to both his regular season and playoff chances as a result.
“It’s like, damn it,” Hamlin said to reporters during a scrum on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. “This format rewards regular-season excellence, and it allows you to have a not perfect day and still be able to race for a championship. Now I’m back there in the middle where I’m very vulnerable in some spots.”
And that is what the meeting was all about on Thursday.
“I just had questions, wanted some clarification about the how, what, when and all that stuff,” Hamlin said. “Obviously, it was very regrettable to have to give me that information when they did. I feel bad for them because I know they didn’t want to have to bring me into that room because I knew it was going to be something that was going to negatively affect our season.”
The penalty stings right now because he went from 21 playoff points to 11 but it will also hurt by the end of the regular season because he went from having a chance to finish in the top five of the regular season standings to outside of it and each position in the top-10 pay playoff points too.
So that could mean any additional five or so playoff points he now loses a chance to have earned. In other words, it gives him less room to have something go wrong in each round of the playoffs and not fall at risk of elimination.
“We have to figure out our best path forward now and it’s just win, finish races to the best of our ability,” Hamlin said. “Obviously, our room for error is gone now, and we just hope to get through the rounds.”
This was a clerical error by Toyota, and no one believes there was anything nefarious committed by the team or manufacturer, especially since the engine was run at Bristol in March, a race where horsepower didn’t matter at all with everyone having to manage their tires all night.
That point was articulated by Chase Elliott too.
“Safe to say they didn’t need the motor that day,” Elliott said, earnestly.
“I hate that, because I want to race Denny,” Elliott said. “I want him to be amongst that group because they do a really good job. Anytime you can go head-to-head with them and outdo a team of that caliber, it’s a good thing and it’s healthy.”
Brad Keselowski said he genuinely felt bad when he heard the news because he could see a scenario where that could have happened to RFK Racing and Ford Performance instead.
“I wasn’t surprised that it could happen but I have a lot of empathy for them,” Keselowski said. “The weight could drop on anyone’s feet. I have empathy because I know that could have been me. I know for certain that Denny and their team didn’t do anything wrong but I also understand the reason for the penalty and why NASCAR has that system in place.
“So, it’s just unfortunate to see that system needing to be utilized. It looks and feels like an honest mistake but NASCAR is not in the business of judging intent either and I respect that as well. I keep using the word empathy because I don’t want to be in Denny’s shoes and I see where I very well could have in a different set of circumstances.”
Kyle Larson expressed the same sentiment and said this isn’t how he wanted the regular season championship and playoff points to be decided.
“It’s unfortunate for them and their team,” Larson said. “It’s a huge hit. As a competitor, you might think that the benefit to our chances was a good thing, but not like that, because I want everyone to have a fair shot and to beat them straight up.”
So he’s not celebrating that at all.
“I mean, it’s potentially one less spot I can lose in the regular season championship but I wanted everyone to have a fair shot at it,” Larson said. “It wasn’t like it was anything the 11 team did and that’s why it’s a bummer.
“They’ll have to overcome it but at the same time, their team is so strong that I think they’ll be fine as long as they don’t have bad luck like they’ve have before.”
The ‘bad luck’ Larson references is all sorts of misfortune that has cost Hamlin championships over the years.
Hamlin was eliminated from the 2015 playoffs at Talladega due to a broken roof hatch. Ross Chastain’s ‘hail melon,’ where he drove into the wall in Turn 3 and 4 and full-throttled around five cars, eliminated Hamlin from the championship race.
Last year, Hamlin was poised to advance to the championship race but then his power steering belt broke and sent him into the wall.
Hamlin has called himself ‘cursed’ and cited a series of ‘random’ events that he just can’t explain or overcome.
“I wish I had an answer but it’s so random,” Hamlin said. “The things happening are absolutely random. But it’s still up to us to go out there, win races, and perform. If we have the results that equal our performance, we’ll still make it and everything will be fine.
“But the sample size is about to get real small and it takes away all that room for error at a time our our sport where winning championships comes down to small sample sizes.”