UPDATE: Denny Hamlin believes NASCAR should change its uncontrolled tire rule, and his team will present video evidence to make its case.
Hamlin, who finished 15th at Chicagoland Speedway after an uncontrolled tired penalty, said Thursday that Joe Gibbs Racing officials will meet Thursday afternoon with NASCAR Cup director Jay Fabian and vice president of competition Scott Miller at Daytona International Speedway.
“The team officials have showed me in emails what they have prepared of multiple pit stops just from last week that are identical or more egregious than ours, and nothing gets called,” said Hamlin, who also had argued the point earlier this week on Twitter. “Is it just because they happen to be looking at you, you get judged? It’s hard for me to believe that inside the system, it flags you when a tire isn’t moving.
“It seems like wherever their eyeballs are on that particular stop is who gets especially looked at, but we have multiple video evidence of other pit stops from other race teams that are identical. You can not draw a difference between them and no penalty. That’s my complaint. It is a judgment call. It’s not black and white. There is no line. It’s not a line that gets crossed, it’s ‘Uh, yeah, it looks a little more than arm’s length.’ ”
— NBC Sports —
Original post – 7/1/2019: Upon arriving home from Chicagoland Speedway early on Monday morning, Denny Hamlin still felt unfairly disadvantage by a judgement call pit road penalty on Sunday during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Camping World 400.
Hamlin received the penalty on lap 105 when a tire was allowed to sit prone to the outside of the No. 11 car, within the pit box, but outside of the arm’s reach of any crew member. The penalty resulted in Hamlin having to start at the rear of the field.
Ruined our day. And for what? A nickel and dime judgment call? This intent is not why this rule was put into place. Let’s go back to using common sense. https://t.co/KdlBT234bp
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) July 1, 2019
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, responded to Hamlin’s comments during his weekly post-race appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“Well, you can’t judge intent,” O’Donnell said. “If a part breaks or anything in the car, if we had to judge intent really on almost any penalty we’d be in trouble. That’s why we have a rule book and it’s black and white and we’ve been through those things. It’s in place for safety reasons.”
— Autoweek —