"It's become more political than it's ever" - Denny Hamlin talks stakeholders' influence in NASCAR’s Austin Dillon penalty

Denny Hamlin has commented on NASCAR's surprising late penalty against Austin Dillon last week. The sport's governing body revoked Dillon's playoff berth despite the Richard Childress Racing driver's victory at Richmond. Pointing to this, Hamlin suggested that stakeholders and their political influence played a role in the decision.

On Wednesday last week, NASCAR slammed a penalty on Dillon and Richard Childress Racing. They not only stripped him of his playoff spot but also deducted 25 driver and owner points. Additionally, NASCAR banned Dillon's spotter, Brandan Benesch, for three races after he was found breaching the NASCAR code of conduct rules.

Recently, Hamlin explained that NASCAR's stakeholders were part of the decision to strip Dillon of his playoff spot despite allowing him to keep the victory. This move left the 43-year-old perplexed, and he discussed it in detail on the recent Actions Detrimental podcast.

"They [NASCAR] probably had, I'm going to guess, ten different stakeholders call them between Monday and Wednesday when that decision was made," Denny Hamlin said. "It could be the OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers], it could be one from Toyota, one from Ford, one from Chevy [Chevrolet], one from RCR [Richard Childress Racing], one from Penske [Team Penske], one from Gibbs [Joe Gibbs Racing]." (12:34-12:54)

"Everyone with their side of why this should or should not be a penalty right. They got everyone coming at them at multiple different directions and say, 'man this is big for us if you do this, it's gonna hurt us if you do that'. But I hate that it's come to that where we almost give the stakeholders too much of a voice... It's become more political that it's ever become," he added. (12:55-13:24, 13:52-13:55)

NASCAR penalized Dillon after the RCR driver right-hooked Joey Logano to maintain his track position and spun him on the final lap of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.

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Denny Hamlin called NASCAR out on their late caution calls

NASCAR Cup Series driver Tyler Reddick (45) reacts after winning the Fire Keepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway (Image vias Imagn)

Denny Hamlin expressed his displeasure with NASCAR after the governing body called for a late caution during the recent race at Michigan. Hamlin argued that the late caution call erased Tyler Reddick's lead in the race, allowing him to go head-to-head with William Byron and nearly handing the victory to the latter.

NASCAR displayed the caution flag after Martin Truex Jr. made contact with the wall with five laps remaining. Before the caution, Reddick held a lead of over two seconds over Byron, which was immediately lost when the caution was called.

"You just want the best car, the best driver, they deserve to win, and putting them in a spot where they're about to lose, and they almost did," Hamlin said in the same podcast. "They almost gave this thing to Byron[...]These things just really change the outcome of races."

However, Tyler Reddick managed to hold his nerve and take the checkered flag at the FireKeepers Casino 400 at the Michigan International Speedway. With this, he claimed his second Cup Series victory of the season and snatched the regular season lead from Kyle Larson.