"They’ve got to shut the f*** up": Denny Hamlin losing patience with NASCAR spotters after Austin Dillon incident at Richmond

An angry Denny Hamlin recently expressed his frustration towards one of NASCAR's most important staples - the spotters. Hamlin was wrecked out by Austin Dillon at Richmond from the lead as the RCR driver went on to take the win.

Interestingly, Dillon's spotter was heard on the radio asking his driver to "wreck him" repeatedly, which led to a question being posed to Hamlin on Actions Detrimental with Danny Hamlin.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was asked whether a spotter's words matter in the heat of the moment for a driver to make a decision. Hamlin said they did, and shared his frustrations about spotters in modern-day NASCAR:

“I’m starting to be more and more in the boat of get rid of these stupid spotters, man. (Door Bumper Clear podcast) might not like it, and I know it’ll never happen, and you can’t because we have superspeedways and it’s a safety thing. But they’ve got to shut the f*** up, man. They do, they’re not driving the car.” [27:35]

"It’s interesting that they believe that that’s like a legitimate way to win. You were on your way to a legitimate win but then you got beat. And you have to live with getting beat on that restart. You didn’t do a good enough job that the #22 did. And you have to take that L," Hamlin added.

Hamlin claimed while Logano in the #22 earned the right to win the race on the last restart, "it took zero talent" to wreck two drivers on the way to a race win, referring to Dillon.

The #11 driver claimed it was a shame that Dillon's win was "tainted" because of his actions, as he had "a legitimate win coming."

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What did Austin Dillon say about his spotter's radio comments?

While speaking to Kevin Harvick on his podcast show, Richmond's race winner Austin Dillon addressed his spotter's temperament and comments on the radio.

"The spotter going on you know, I think he was a fanboy last night in that race. It would be like having a #3 fan commentating, trying to drive the car up there," Dillon said.

On Wednesday, a few days after Dillon's win, NASCAR announced a major decision regarding the RCR driver. The #3 driver was penalized for his actions of dumping Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano and NASCAR took away his playoff eligibility. However, Dillon kept the race win and the purse that ensued.

NASCAR's Elton Sawyer said that they looked at the whole incident with all the data, and concluded that Dillon crossed a line. He added that while the sport has been based for many, many years on hard racing and contact racing, what Dillon did was unacceptable.

Notably, along with Dillon, his spotter Brandon Benesch was also penalized for his comments on the radio. Benesch got a three-race suspension from NASCAR for his "Wreck him" comments on the radio.