“The precedent was set with us”: Denny Hamlin equates Kevin Harvick’s disqualification to his own, applauds NASCAR

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin has recently expressed his views on Kevin Harvick’s disqualification from last week’s playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Harvick was happy with how his #4 Ford performed in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but his happiness was short-lived as his runner-up finish was taken away from him. NASCAR disqualified him after his car did not pass the post-race inspection.

During inspection NASCAR found that the windshield fasteners were not secured for the entirety of the race which went against their “Overall Assembled Vehicle Rules.”

On the latest episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin applauds NASCAR for upholding the rulebook against Stewart-Haas Racing’ violation.

“I don’t know how to comment on it because I really like Rodney [Childers] and the No. 4 team. So, I probably should say less here than I should say more. I like them as competitors, the No. 4 team [and] the No. 11 team have always gotten along really well… It just seems like a — Rodney has his side and NASCAR probably has their side. Their [NASCAR] side it just to uphold the rulebook to the top degree and I applaud them on doing that because the precedent was set with us… Had tape on the nose, we showed everyone in the public, Hamlin said as quoted by Pro Talk.

Comparing his last year’s Pocono race disqualification with Harvick, the #11 Toyota driver said:

“We said, ‘Look, here’s what we did just so there’s no misconstrued information.’ We were very forthright in that information. I really thought that was the right move by Joe Gibbs Racing just to say, ‘We’re not appealing, here’s what we did.’ And lately, and I’m wondering, will NASCAR show pictures of it? Or, because it was at the track, will they not?”

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“The windshield because of bolts not being there” - Denny Hamlin on advantage of having unsecured windshield

The #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver explained how the position of windshield can make a big difference to on-track speedway. Denny Hamlin said #4 car’s loose windshield clear had an advantage during the closing laps of the race.

Hamlin said:

“What NASCAR deemed them to disqualify them — the windshield because of bolts not being there, it caused the windshield not to be flush with the greenhouse. To be transparent, that is an advantage… Certainly how his car ended the race would be advantageous to performance versus detrimental.”

Catch Denny Hamlin in action at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 8.