Tag Archives: Denny Hamlin

Sports

William Byron wins NASCAR appeal, regains playoff points

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CONCORD, N.C. — An appeals panel on Thursday reinstated the 25 points William Byron had been docked by NASCAR for deliberately spinning championship rival Denny Hamlin, a critical decision that helps his playoff hopes.

The three-person panel found that Byron did break a NASCAR rule for spinning Hamlin under caution. But Hendrick Motorsports had appealed the NASCAR penalty, which was initially a $50,000 fine and the loss of 25 critical points in the championship race.

The panel raised the fine to $100,000 but gave Byron back his points. The favorable ruling moved Byron out from below the elimination line heading into Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the playoff field will be cut from 12 to eight.

Byron was 10th in the standings with the loss of points; he’s now seventh in the standings and 14 points above the cut line.

The decision from the panel — television executive Hunter Nickell and short-track promoters Dale Pinilis and Kevin Whitaker — upended the standings heading into the second elimination race of the playoffs.

Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe, who were tied for eighth, both dropped below the cut line. Christopher Bell dropped from 33 points below the cutline to 45 points out, and Daniel Suarez now sits in eighth in the standings.

The controversy surrounding Byron’s action at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago was because the NASCAR officials in the scoring tower missed the deliberate spin of Hamlin. It was done out of anger under caution; despite the lengthy caution period and massive replay screen in the Texas infield, NASCAR simply missed it and wasn’t able to issue an in-race penalty.

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Chase Elliott won’t celebrate Pocono win after Denny Hamlin disqualified for failing postrace inspection

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Chase Elliott left Pocono Raceway as a third-place finisher and learned when he landed home in Georgia that he had been declared the race winner.

For now, at least.

Joe Gibbs Racing can still appeal NASCAR’s decision to strip Denny Hamlin’s victory and teammate Kyle Busch’s runner-up finish on Sunday after their Toyotas failed inspections. Hamlin was the first Cup winner to be disqualified since April 17, 1960, when Emanuel Zervakis’ victory at Wilson Speedway in North Carolina was thrown out because of an oversized fuel tank.

The Toyotas were shipped to NASCAR’s research and development center in North Carolina for further evaluation and — depending on potential appeals — it could take a week to sort out the winner or other penalties levied against JGR.

Elliott was gifted his fourth win of the season, without the Hendrick Motorsports driver ever leading a lap Sunday in his No. 9 Chevrolet. The series points leader will take the win, even if he doesn’t feel great about achieving it without a checkered flag.

“I was probably just kind of more surprised by it than anything,” Elliott said Monday. “I don’t think any driver wants to win that way. I certainly don’t.”

Hamlin — who had already zipped his young daughter around the track on a victory lap — and the rest of the field had long left Pocono when the NASCAR inspection team found issues in both Toyotas that affected the aerodynamics.

“There really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere it shouldn’t have been. And that does basically come down to a DQ,” NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran said Sunday night.

Team owner Joe Gibbs said Sunday he was “shocked” by the ruling and his organization planned “to review every part of the process that led to this situation.”

Pushing the edge of the rulebook — creatively or illegally — has been a part of NASCAR’s culture since its inception. But NASCAR toughened its punishments entering the 2019 season in a bolder bid to squash cheating. The biggest shift came in inspections, which nailed the JGR drivers on Sunday. NASCAR ensured postrace inspections would take place at the track instead of midweek at the sanctioning body’s research and development center outside Charlotte, North Carolina.

Winning teams found in violation of the rules before 2019 were penalized with postrace fines, point deductions and/or suspensions. But drivers didn’t have victories taken away from them until then.

For example, Joey Logano kept a 2017 win in Richmond even after a midweek teardown of his car at the R&D center showed his Team Penske team broke rules. Logano, though, could not count the win toward postseason consideration.

Hamlin won’t be so lucky. He lost this third win of the season, his record seventh victory at Pocono and a 49th career win that would have tied him on NASCAR’s career list with three-time champion Tony Stewart.

No matter NASCAR’s final judgment, Hamlin will likely stand as the winner among multiple gambling sites. FanDuel said Monday the house rules state bets are settled on the result of the podium presentation regardless of any subsequent disqualifications. Where things gets murky is with fantasy players.

FanDuel said all NASCAR fantasy contests are settled the following day.

The breakdown went like this:

• Elliott received 43 points for finishing first after the postrace inspections.

• Kyle Busch received five points for finishing in 36th place as a result of failing postrace inspection.

• Hamlin earned six fantasy points for finishing 35th.

NASCAR could hit JGR with stiffer points penalties and fines than Zervakis faced in 1960. The Associated Press reported that officials held up Zervakis’ purse of $1,275 after he won the race without a pit stop and “carried about a half-gallon of gasoline more than is considered stock in the technical ratings of his 1960 Chevrolet.” Joe Weatherly earned the win.

Elliott, 27, the 2020 Cup Series champion and NASCAR’s most popular driver, said he was moving on from Pocono as if he did indeed finish third. And he said he won’t ask for the trophy.

“I’m not going to celebrate someone’s misfortune,” Elliott said. “That doesn’t seem right to me. I crossed the line third. That’s kind of how I’m looking at it.”

DraftKings Sportsbook, however, said it will pay out bets on both Hamlin and Elliott.

DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello said house rules state all bets will be settled “based on the unofficial results sent out by NASCAR” but also notes that if there is a “change in the official race result, all previous winners will stand and new winners will also be settled as won.”

Caesars Sportsbook said all of its bets were settled according to the official order of finish, with Elliott as the winner and Hamlin and Busch finishing 35th and 36th, respectively.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Sports

Chase Elliott given win at Pocono after Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch disqualified

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LONG POND, Pa. — NASCAR stripped Denny Hamlin of his win at Pocono Raceway when his No. 11 Toyota failed inspection and was disqualified, awarding Chase Elliott the Cup Series victory.

Joe Gibbs Racing had Hamlin’s car and runner-up Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota both disqualified. Hamlin lost his record seventh victory at Pocono and his third win of the season. Busch led a race-high 63 laps.

NASCAR believed the last time it disqualified an apparent winner was April 17, 1960, when Emanuel Zervakis’ victory at Wilson Speedway in North Carolina was thrown out because of an oversized fuel tank.

The penalties can be appealed and both Toyotas were sent to NASCAR’s research and development center in North Carolina.

“There was some issues discovered that affect aero in the vehicle,” NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran said. “There really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere it shouldn’t have been. And that does basically come down to a DQ.”

Moran said the parts in question were the front fascia — essentially the nose cone — and final decisions “should be sorted out by next week.”

Elliott, who had finished third, was given his fourth win of the season. He never led a lap in the No. 9 Chevrolet.

Moran said the inspection “rules have tightened up” with the introduction this season of a new car. NASCAR’s newest version is essentially a kit car. Teams get all the same pieces from varying vendors and have detailed instructions regarding how to put it together.

“We don’t want to be here talking about this problem,” Moran said. “But the teams and the owners and everybody was well aware that this new car was going to be kept with some pretty tight tolerances. There’s some areas that all the teams are well aware that we can not go down the path that we had in the past with the other car.”

The failures marred what had been a banner day for JGR.

Hamlin had seemingly won for the third time this season and passed Hall of Fame driver Jeff Gordon for most wins at Pocono with seven. Hamlin swept two races at Pocono in his rookie season in 2006, and added wins in 2009, 2010, 2019 and 2020. Now, he remains tied with the four-time NASCAR champion.

Hamlin had plenty to handle from the start, when the pole sitter tagged the wall on the opening lap. He recovered — at 400 miles on the 2 1/2-mile tri-oval there’s plenty of racing ahead — then had to watch Busch lead the majority of the race. Oh, then there was this thorny issue of settling a lingering score with Ross Chastain.

Chastain wrecked Hamlin two times in a month earlier this season — Hamlin counted two more times from last season — and was fed-up with the aggressive driving of the watermelon farmer. Hamlin refused to give his rival an inch off a restart at Pocono and forced Chastain into the wall with 16 laps left in the race. Chastain slammed the wall and triggered a wreck that collected several drivers, including winless Kevin Harvick, who is fighting for a playoff spot.

“What did you want me to do? What did you expect me to do,” Hamlin asked in the immediate aftermath.

Chastain, who has two wins this season driving for Trackhouse Racing, sheepishly understood comeuppance was due.

“I think that’s something that’s been owed to me for a few months now,” Chastain said.

Hamlin also lost his tie with former teammate Tony Stewart on NASCAR’s career wins list with 49.

“We’ve just been good friends and he’s certainly someone that I look up to from a talent standpoint,” Hamlin said. “He was the guy that for 36 races was a threat to win, and that’s what I hope to be some day.”

Hamlin is pretty close: He’s a three-time Daytona 500 champion and part owner of 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan. About the only blemish on his resume is the championship he’s failed to win — and the first DQ of his Cup career.

Hamlin’s young daughter burst into tears of joy and he sent her to retrieve the checkered flag. Taylor Hamlin clutched the flag as she slid through the passenger’s side window and took a victory lap around Pocono with dad at the wheel.

TY GAME

Ty Gibbs finished 16th for 23XI Racing in his first career Cup start subbing for the injured Kurt Busch.

Busch suffered a head injury during a hard hit Saturday in qualifying and was not cleared to race by NASCAR’s medical staff. That opened the door for the 19-year-old Gibbs.

In a pinch, the grandson of Joe Gibbs wore Busch’s firesuit and Hamlin’s shoes.

“I never thought I’d race with these guys,” Gibbs said. “It was just cool being next to them on the track. To 10-year-old Ty, that means a lot.”

Grandpa Joe was pretty proud. “He was discouraged that he couldn’t get more out of it,” Gibbs said. “I think he realizes how tough it is.”

NO DEAL

Gibbs remained concerned JGR has yet to reach a new contact with Kyle Busch.

“We had a couple of companies, we thought [were in] that wound up to be disappointments for us,” Gibbs said. “But it is hard and it is discouraging.”

UP NEXT

IndyCar and NASCAR share next weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. IndyCar races Saturday on the road course; NASCAR races Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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