Hamlin made a mistake, not concoct a conspiracy

Four years ago, needing a yellow to avoid falling a lap down at Bristol Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun his car to bring out a caution. He admitted as much after the race, and was fined $10,000 and docked 25 points as a result. Two years earlier, looking for a caution to draw leader and eventual winner Ryan Newman back to the field, Kurt Busch spun Robby Gordon in the all-star exhibition. "We needed a yellow so we could put on a good show at the end," he said, comments the fans may have appreciated but NASCAR did not. The sanctioning body fined him $10,000 as well.
There were no such admissions -- and smartly so -- by Denny Hamlin in the aftermath of last Saturday night's event at Richmond International Raceway, which turned into a complete free-for-all in the closing laps after Hamlin cut a tire and Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked racing for the lead. Junior Nation went expectedly apoplectic, demanding the younger Busch's noggin on a pike. Wherever he went during this week's test at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Busch was escorted by three security guards, which might have been a ploy by track promoter Humpy Wheeler to milk the incident for all it's worth.
And who can blame him? Busch is public enemy No. 1 right now. Of course, lost in all this is the fact that Busch would likely never have gotten within ramming distance of Earnhardt had Hamlin's car not stopped in the high lane with a shredded tire, bringing out a caution with 10 laps remaining and setting the stage for what was to follow. That Hamlin was later able to drive to pit road didn't sit well with race officials, who parked the Joe Gibbs Racing driver for two laps. It all combined to create a seemingly unshakable premise -- Hamlin had chosen that very point to stop, knowing the yellow would help Busch catch Earnhardt. He had taken one for the team.

Denny Hamlin's dream weekend turned into a nightmare at Richmond. Why? Josh Pate says it's tough to find justification.

Or had he? Sure, NASCAR officials penalized him two laps Saturday night, but thus far there have been no fines or point deductions like those assessed to Earnhardt and Kurt Busch in similar, previous situations. According to series officials, none are expected. In communication over the radio, Hamlin and crew chief Mike Ford were obsessed over the state of the tire, not the position of their teammate. And addressing the situation at the Charlotte test, Hamlin said he had equipment issues that forced him to stop.
"I was trying to get to pit road, and the problem was, if I ran any kind of speed around the racetrack, I was going to drag the sway-bar arm off," he said. "It went in Turn 3, and that's when I totally lost the entire tire. So I stopped trying to be able to turn it down onto pit road, but I had already crossed over the wall. I didn't want to risk tearing up the car to where we couldn't finish the race. So I knew I had to stop, or else I was going to jeopardize us even finishing the race. It was a fine line there. We had to stop, or else we were going to get a DNF. Because our sway-bar arms, the way they are designed, they just can't stay on that racetrack for long, and we were already dragging it as soon as the tire started going down. Just one of those deals, I guess."
So was he trying to help Busch win the race? "I didn't even know where Kyle was out on the racetrack," he said. "For all I know, he was leading the race."
That much is plausible. During a race, drivers are ensconced in 3,400-pound, 150 mph cocoons that demand their immediate and unwavering attention. Listen to a driver over the radio, and he'll occasionally ask his spotter where his teammates are running. Because strapped inside all that sheet metal, able to look only forward, he often has no real idea. Of all the people watching the race, drivers have the worst vantage point. They see only their switches and dials and windshield and rearview mirror, and have to rely on the voices in their ear for just about everything else.
Was the caution Hamlin prompted by stopping on the racetrack the primary reason his teammate Busch was able to catch Earnhardt? Unquestionably. Did it indirectly cause the wreck that followed? Absolutely. But this isn't Junior spinning himself out, or Kurt Busch punting the guy directly in front of him. To think that Hamlin, stressed out with a tire going down after leading almost every lap of a race at his hometown track, had the time or the wherewithal to concoct some grand conspiracy plot is stretch of reason. More likely it was just stubbornness and anger, hoping against hope that the thing would hold out a while longer, an unwillingness to accept that so much within his grasp was being taken away.
"Just from an outsider looking in, it looked very obvious to me that he was frustrated, overly frustrated that he had just led 300-some laps and was pretty much going to win that race," Jeff Gordon said. "I think he was extremely upset and frustrated. Obviously he didn't do what most people would do, which was come to pit road long before the tire blows, you know? It was obvious when I went by him that he had a real issue, that is all I can say. I don't know why he stopped, why he didn't come to pit road, but that would be my guess."
But of course, this is NASCAR, where any unfortunate event becomes some kind of grand scheme on the level of alien beings in desert hangars or straw men on a grassy knoll. Yes, Denny Hamlin certainly made a mistake, and very likely broke some unwritten rule of driver etiquette by staying on the track too long, getting in the way, and influencing the outcome. But that doesn't make him Lee Harvey Oswald. It makes him exactly what he is -- a young, headstrong driver who hopefully will learn from the experience, maybe get to pit road a little quicker next time, and not let his frustrations affect others trying to finish.

By David Caraviello NASCAR.COM

Hamlin Injured...Playing Basketball

Denny Hamlin had the gait of a man in his 70's Monday in the garage at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Hamlin said he injured his left hip playing basketball Sunday night with friends who were trying to help him find something to do to forget his race Saturday night at Richmond when he led almost all the way until his tire lost air pressure with about 20 laps to go and he finished a disappointing 24th.
"I'd like to say I was going up for a dunk, but I think everyone would know that ain't true,'' Hamlin said. "When I went up, the person was lower than I was and I kind of flipped over his shoulder. I was horizontal to the ground. That was bad on the way down.'' Hamlin said.

"It popped and it doesn't feel good at all. I couldn't lay on it last night, and it ain't getting much better." Hamlin said he might see a doctor soon.
When someone mentioned that it had been a rough two days for him, Hamlin replied: "It ain't been very good. I'm just trying to get in the swing of things. It's good to be back at a race track.''
Hamlin was cruising to the win when the tire started losing air pressure. Hamlin stayed on the track instead of pitting, hoping for a caution. He proved to be the caution when the tire let go. He stopped on the track and got the caution and then took off, earning a two-lap penalty from NASCAR.
Many Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans -and Earnhardt Jr. - were upset at Hamlin for pulling the move. With Hamlin's caution bunching the field, it gave Kyle Busch a chance to make a last-ditch run at Earnhardt that turned into their incident.

Said Earnhardt Jr. after the race Saturday: "Everybody knows the deal on that. Everybody knows that’s wrong. You all know what to write. I ain’t writing it for you.''
Here's how Hamlin described what happened:
"I was trying to get to pit road. The problem was if I ran any kind of speed around the race track I was going to drag the sway bar arm off. It went into turn 3 and that's when I totally lost the entire tire. So I stopped, trying to be able to turn it down on to pit road but I had already crossed (by) the wall (that separates the track from the pits). I didn't want to risk tearing up the car to where we couldn't even finish the race, so I knew I had to stop or else I was going to jeopardize even us finishing the race.

Q: You were just looking to create a caution ...
DENNY: Yeah. Bottom line we had to stop or else we were going to get a DNF because our sway bar arms, the way they're designed is just that they can't stay on that race track for long and we were already dragging it as soon as the tire started going down. It was just one of those deals.
Q: A lot of people said you stopped to help Kyle out.
DENNY: I didn't even know where Kyle was at on the race track. For all I knew he was leading the race. It ended up causing whatever happened there at the end but, hell, if I didn't have that (previous) caution, my tire would have never went flat. So, I guess it will all even itself out in the end.
Q: Do you know what caused the tire to cut?
DENNY: No. I think it just destroyed the tire too bad for us to tell. I rode on it so long. The only chance we had was to stick it out and hope we get a caution before I went a lap down.
Q: Certainly other guys have stopped on the track to create cautions in the past. Is that tactic accepted among drivers or do you, for lack of a better term, need to apologize for or explain?
DENNY: I think everyone has been in that situation, so nobody would say anything to me about stopping. I think they would understand the same thing as I went through. I was already (upset) anyway because I felt like we should have won the race. Regardless if I was running fifth, I would have done the same thing because I pride myself on not getting DNFs and if I would have ran that one lap on that flat tire ... we would have been done. I had to do what I had to do regardless of whether it kind of affected someone else or not.

So there's D Ham's explanation for what happened on Saturday night. I'd rather he pitted before he had to stop on the racetrack..but hindsight's 20/20.

I sure hope that Denny feels better soon. If he needs a 5'6" heating pad or a masseuse I'm available at a moment's notice. Just send the Lear Jet and I'll be right there to make it all better....

No Additional Penalties For Hamlin Or Waltrip

The # 11 Team of Denny Hamlin won't receive any further penalty for

"intentionally" bringing out a late caution in Saturday night's Dan Lowry 400 Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway, even though there is precedent for it. NASCAR said Monday that there would also be no additional penalty expected against #55-Michael Waltrip for intentionally slamming into #5-Casey Mears after the two got into the wall with less than 50 laps to go. Hamlin was given a two-lap penalty for stopping on the track for a cut tire with less than 10 laps remaining. NASCAR officials believed it was an intentional move to bring out the caution and allow Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch the opportunity to close on then-leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. A spokesperson for the governing body said during Monday's test session at Lowe's Motor Speedway that there would be no further punishment.

In 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was docked 25 points and fined $10,000 for intentionally bringing out the caution at Bristol. Also, in the 2002 running of the All-Star race, Kurt Busch was fined $10,000 for intentionally spinning out Robby Gordon to bring out a caution.

During Saturday night's race, Michael Waltrip was parked with about 40 laps remaining when he intentionally took out Casey Mears after Mears got into him a few laps earlier. Officials said the hit Waltrip took in points -- he finished 37th and fell a spot to 32nd in points -- was severe enough.

Hamlin's dream weekend turns into a nightmare

A cut tire ruined what could've been the perfect race
One crewman slammed his fist onto a nicely packaged toolbox sitting behind the No. 11 hauler. Another man simply placed items neatly where they were supposed to be in preparation for loading up. The smoke and smell of rubber that floated above was supposed to be from their driver's car, but instead Clint Bowyer was the one doing donuts.
Denny Hamlin? He was following in brisk walk as his crew pushed his car through the Richmond International Raceway garage, cameras glaring, a large pack of media following.
It wasn't supposed to end this way.
Hamlin wasn't supposed to have that blank stare on his face as local television cameras tried to capture his emotion following Saturday night's Crown Royal 400. They had chased their hometown product all weekend, starting at Thursday night's Late Model race at nearby Southside Speedway, where Hamlin grew up racing. The event was called the Denny Hamlin 175. Proceeds from the race were to travel through the newly created Denny Hamlin Foundation, which the driver kicked off this week.
Things soon afterward began to appear storybook-like. Hamlin was fourth in Cup practice. Hamlin won the pole position for Saturday's race. Hamlin took four tires when the leaders didn't pit and charged past Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick to win Friday night's Nationwide Series race. In Victory Lane, he proclaimed it the biggest win of his career -- in any series. And on Sunday, Hamlin presented a $50,000 check to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation from his Thursday night charitable race.
It was set up to be one of those weekends. They're rare in this era of Cup racing. So rare that folks began scrambling to get the exact date that Jeff Burton led every one of the 300 laps at New Hampshire to win.
That's what Denny Hamlin was on his way to.

Hamlin put on the most dominant performance this season. He put on the most dominant performance since ... Sept. 17, 2000, the date of Burton's wire-to-wire win. By Lap 382 of the scheduled 400-lap event, Hamlin had led 381 of them.
It was also on that lap that his car began to slow, his right-front tire going down. He lost the lead to Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 17 laps to go. Two laps later, he was sixth. Finally, with nine to go, Hamlin's tire gave up. He went high entering Turn 3, slowed, then stopped in Turn 4 to bring out the caution. NASCAR penalized him two laps for deliberately causing a yellow, and Hamlin finished 24th, three laps down.
The cut in Hamlin's tire was a V-shaped gash, slightly bigger than the size of a quarter.
"It's just a bummer deal for him. He drove a flawless race, and he had spectacular pit stops all day," said second-place finisher and teammate Kyle Busch.
Perhaps that's what leaves a greater sting.
Aside from getting passed when his tire went down, Hamlin never lost the lead on the racetrack or in the pits. A.J. Allmendinger led one time for one lap when he stayed out early in the race. But on every pit sequence, partially thanks to Hamlin's well-built lead each green-flag run, his crew got him out first. Remember, this is the same crew -- well, not exactly the same -- that has lost more than one race for Hamlin in the past.
He even said he was just riding around during the race, and when someone would close in, he'd kick it into gear and pull away at his own pace.
"You don't have days like this," said Hamlin, who was cruising in the same car he won with at Martinsville. "Dominating days like this just don't happen. There's just nothing you can say other than it just wasn't meant to be."
So when Hamlin drove into the garage following the race, he turned off the ignition and simply sat there. Collecting his thoughts, he said, trying to justify the final half hour of an otherwise perfect weekend.
That, for Hamlin and most everyone else who watched, was impossible.

By Josh Pate, NASCAR.COM

I DON"T Want To Talk About It

Well, I still haven't recovered from last night's catastrophe. I sat for 381 laps with my fingers crossed, praying every single lap. I begged for the caution that came out for Michael Waltrip and Casey Mears on Lap 356 and was screaming thanking God for answering my prayers. Then the unthinkable happened. I don't want to talk about it! I cried so hard my eyes are all puffy today. I'd like to choke NASCAR for giving him that 2 lap penalty. I want to kick Mike Ford for not bringing him to pit road before he became the caution. He could have come back with fresh tires. Anything would have been better than the 24th place finish they ended up with! To lead 381 laps and then finish 24th 3 laps down is pathetic. To lose 2 positions in the points is tragic.

But no matter what the score board said, no matter what place they scored him when it was all over...that race was Denny Hamlin's! He is the Champ to me and Richmond International Raceway and the Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400 belonged to D Ham. He had it won and will always be the man of the night to me. I'm sorry I uncrossed my fingers for a minute. I'm sorry I left the room for a pit stop. I'm sorry you didn't get the trophy you so deeply desired. But you had the home crowd on your side and I'm proud of you no matter what. And that's all I have to say about that!