Denny Hamlin calls out "safety problem" after Charlotte spin to avoid William Byron's pit crew

Recently, Denny Hamlin addressed his stalled pit road issue that could have led to a safety concern for the adjacent pit crew members at the pit road of the Charlotte Motor Speedway. #11 Hamlin finished fifth in the 14th Cup Series race of the 2024 season on Sunday (May 26).

The pit boxes are tightly placed on the 1.5-mile oval track, which seemingly creates problems for the Cup Series drivers to enter and exit the pit road. Apart from the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 event, another factor affected certain drivers while pitting their Next-Gen cars on their respective pit stalls. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Hamlin was the first one to call out the intricacies of the pit box layouts.

In a recent episode of Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin, the 43-year-old discussed the issue he faced while entering the #11 pit stall. Hamlin recollected the moment when he had to "swing around" the #24 William Byron on the pit road so that he could park his #11 Toyota pointing towards the right.

Hamlin then elaborated on the scenario if he drove his #11 straight into the pit box:

"I had an opening. But if I drove straight from where I had to swing out to get around his people, I would be nosed into my stall crooked. And then I wouldn't be able to get out that way. I needed all the space in my pit road box to get my car pointed to the right," Hamlin said.

The Florida native Hamlin then pointed out the problems he faced exiting the pit stalls. Hamlin added about the possible incident that would have injured the #17 Chris Buescher's crew, as the #17 team was placed ahead of Hamlin.

"I am really close to rolling over the ankles of the 17 rear changers, like really close. I gotta get out. I can't sit there and wait. So I'm trying to spin my car to get around his bumper and barely clear him."

"It's just to me it's like can we say safety as a problem here where I'm I'm eventually we keep going the way we're going...couple nights ago. Like we're going to run over some pit crew guys," Hamlin added.

The pit stall chaos extended to other Cup Series drivers like RFK Racing's Chris Buescher at Charlotte Motor Speedway along with Denny Hamlin.

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Pit road issues made Denny Hamlin furious at Chris Buescher

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin kept losing spots due to the RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher in NASCAR's crown jewel event on Sunday.

#11 Hamlin had to back up whenever #17 Buescher pitted at the same time to exit the pit box. The stalled situation made Hamlin furious as he lost spots in the running order. Hamlin then called out his crew chief, Chris Gabehart.

To this Crew Chief Gabehart replied on #11's team radio:

"Brother, if I do anything more than I’ve already done, we’re going to FIGHT! Do you understand? I've done all I can do!"

The JGR driver then responded by saying:

"That’s what I’m going to do next time. Do you hear me 17? Park in your Goddamn box! I will stomp on your(Chris Buescher) bumper!"

Later, things settled down at the next stop as the #17 team asked Buescher to pit in differently, which helped Hamlin to leave the pit road without any difficulties.

However, this in-race adjustment between Hamlin-Buescher led to another pit box issue between Buescher and #42 John Hunter Nemechek, where #17 Buescher had to back up to avoid contact and get past ahead of the Legacy Motor Club driver Nemechek.