Kevin Harvick reacts harshly to Denny Hamlin NASCAR penalty
Denny Hamlin was docked 75 driver points and 10 playoff points for a violation of engine inspection requirements last week, a huge blow to his hopes of winning a regular-season championship and a significant ding to his aspirations in the playoffs.
It was the talk of NASCAR this week, with just about everyone chiming in.
“Obviously the 11 car had the issues with the engine and a tech issue with everything that was going on from March, April,” Kevin Harvick said on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “Major, major implications for Denny Hamlin from a points standpoint and regular-season points, the win bonus points got taken away. So there were huge implications from Denny Hamlin’s side.”
For some, exactly what happened with Denny Hamlin’s engine fiasco remains a mystery. Harvick did his best to break it down on the podcast.
“So basically the engines have to go through this rotation of how many times you have to run them, and if you win a race you have to take the engine back to NASCAR to be inspected,” Harvick said. “Well they never took the engine back to NASCAR because they used an engine that… I better slow down.
“They used an engine that won Bristol. That engine doesn’t have to be inspected until you’re done running it through the mandatory cycle of races that you have to run it. So when they got to the end of the cycle of races that they were supposed to run this engine at, it would technically have to go back to NASCAR to be inspected for the win at Bristol. It just goes for the win. It didn’t go for the win to get inspected, and apparently they turned themselves in because they rebuilt the motor without the motor going back to get inspected.”
Toyota Racing Development took responsibility for the issue, seemingly absolving Denny Hamlin and his team for any wrongdoing. Of course, they’ll still suffer the consequences of the mishap.
Still, one of Harvick’s co-hosts wasn’t fully satisfied, wondering if earlier issues this season with Toyota engines had caused something untoward in the return and/or inspections process in the hopes of bolstering chances down the road.
“I just have a hard time believing that; I’m not saying that they were doing anything crazy on purpose, I’m just saying that I have a hard time believing,” co-host Mamba Smith said. “I’m questioning it. Nothing happens in this deal on accident.”
Denny Hamlin and his team said it was just that, an accident.
“It obviously slipped through the cracks somehow,” Hamlin said. “Things happen, and certainly nobody wanted this to happen certainly within TRD. The car that has the most points that was sitting in the best spot to win them a championship. Surely they didn’t want this to happen, but it did. They wanted to make sure they played by the rules and reported it and try to see if there’s any way we could rectify it, but there just wasn’t. When you got red seal sitting on the ground, you’ve hurt the integrity process of inspection.”
