"We have a pretty safe car": Denny Hamlin vouches for safety in NASCAR after Corey LaJoie's Michigan wreck

Denny Hamlin recently shared his take on Corey LaJoie's violent flip during the Cup race at Michigan. After LaJoie's #7 Next Gen Camaro made contact with Noah Gragson during the 136th lap of the race, it went towards the infield and within seconds was airborne as it spun and flipped before coming to a halt.

Fortunately, LaJoie escaped unhurt from the incident, which pointed towards the safety aspect of the modern racecars in NASCAR.

Following the race, the winning-owner Hamlin was asked whether LaJoie's incident suggests a cause of concern from "the immediate view of it."

"The cars I feel like are pretty safe in roll-over situations. Seems like between that and intrusions, that’s kind of the strong point of the Next Gen car. We saw with (Ryan) Preece, he had some bloody eyes, but he had a pretty violent one. His body was banged up, but he didn’t have any serious injuries. That’s what the goal of it was," Denny Hamlin said [at 16:40].

Denny Hamlin claimed that Corey LaJoie's wreck was "obviously less violent" as he was right in the middle of the straightaway, though he was doing speeds of 185mph when he turned sideways. Hamlin remarked that he was unsure whether LaJoie could've done anything as a driver to keep the car from going airborne.

Further, the #11 driver said that he'd rather have his racecar roll over than hit a wall because at least in the former instance, he'd be getting rid of the travelling energy. He further added:

"I can’t speak for him, but certainly feel like we have a pretty safe car. I feel comfortable with the speeds that we’re at. There’s just going to be a way, when you turn these things sideways, with that pan underneath the bottom, it’s literally like a wedge, the air is pushing that thing right over the top. Short of getting rid of the underbody, I just don’t know how you’re going to stop it."

After last month's Brickyard 400, Hamlin had discussed issues with the Next Gen car on his podcast show.

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Denny Hamlin describes the problems with the Next Gen car

Denny Hamlin said on "Actions Detrimental" that the difference between the Cup car and the Xfinity car is that the closer the Next Gen cars get, the more prone they are to taking off in the former Series.

“You lose all downforce. It’s done. The closer you get to the car in front of you in Xfinity, and what we saw Riley Herbst and many others do is that as soon as you get close to the rear of the car, they start losing rear downforce, and then they get off the bottom and they shuck them," Denny Hamlin said.

Hamlin said that this was the case with the previous generations of racecars at the Cup level, that they could always get the driver ahead of them "loose". But now that is no longer the case because as per him, the cars aren't making any over-body aerodynamics, and it's all underbody. Because of this change in the aerodynamics of the cars, a driver is not able to take the air off the spoiler of the driver ahead due to the lack of such air available in the spoiler.

Hamlin deemed this "a physics problem" with the Next Gen car, and said he hopes that NASCAR will allow teams to further fine-tune their packages for the racetrack.