Racing

Denny Hamlin blasts Indy and NASCAR officials for the ‘crashfest’ on the road course

Posted on by Charlotte

Denny Hamlin was far harsher on Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR than he was on Chase Briscoe after the latter denied him a win on Sunday.

Hamlin blamed them for substantial — and costly — damage to cars in the Verizon 200 at The Brickyard.

“Imagine the tracks who NET hundreds of millions of dollars a year can’t be held to a higher standard,” Hamlin wrote on Twitter in reply to a comment by Autoweek reporter Matt Weaver about NASCAR seeming to have problems every race. “They cost the race teams millions today. But we will get a we’ll do better next time. This will continue because we never make real changes. It’s always something.”

The curbing in Turns 5 and 6 was the main source of contention. All weekend, cars from the Cup, Xfinity, and IndyCar series rolled, bounced, and flew off it. On Lap 78 of the 82-lap race on Sunday, William Byron’s No. 24 car ran over it in Turn 6. The curb hop caused a multicar pileup and a red flag.

Byron’s car caused enough damage to the curbing that NASCAR and IndyCar had to remove it.

Michael McDowell’s car then collided with a piece of the remaining curb in the Turn 6 exit and went sideways on the overtime restart. This resulted in another multicar incident and a second red flag.

“The track was a mess,” Hamlin told reporters after the race (per NBCSports.com). “These cars and curbs and all that stuff just doesn’t go together. We’re trying to force sports car racing into these fans. Although the finish was a crashfest, I’m sure everyone will love it. It’s just stupid. It’s a complete circus at the end of the race. You just roll the dice and hope you don’t get crashed.”

“That curb has been that curb since we redid the racetrack in 2014. We’ve never had any issues with that curb before,” Doug Boles, president of IMS, told Indianapolis news station WTHR. “In fact, even the Xfinity cars last year used that curb, had no problems with it. We had no problems with it at all this weekend until today.” Boles also stated that the track and NASCAR will meet to explore what can be done to improve the area.

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Briscoe collided with Hamlin while he was leading in the second overtime. Briscoe believed he was racing Hamlin’s car and drove through the back of it. Briscoe, on the other hand, had been fined by NASCAR just moments before for taking an illegal shortcut through the grass after being knocked off the course. Briscoe was eliminated from contention as a result of the penalty.

The race was won by AJ Allmendinger, who inherited the lead.

Briscoe told Hamlin after the race that he didn’t realize he had been penalized at the time. He also stated that he did not intentionally spin Hamlin.

“I can accept (Briscoe’s explanation),” Hamlin said in a postrace interview with NBC. “The roles have been reversed other times. I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve been on the giving end of a mistake. So I get it. To me it’s like a lack of situational awareness where obviously you’re going to have a penalty until you cut the race track.”

Last week, Hamlin criticized NASCAR for moving the annual Brickyard race from Indy’s iconic oval to the road course, claiming that a “crown jewel” race had been taken away. The race on Sunday did not change his view.

“I didn’t see any more people here than what we had at the Brickyard 400,” he said, per NBCSports.com. “It certainly ain’t the Brickyard 400. I don’t know. I enjoy the road course. Don’t get me wrong. I think this course is nice. It’s got some good passing zones. If we do anything, come back twice. I hate to give a track an extra date that took us off one of the most prestigious tracks and put us in the parking lot in the infield.”

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Charlotte