The Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway last Sunday was chaotic, with a record 18 cautions. Several of those were caused by brake rotors overheating and snapping, affecting Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Zane Smith, and Noah Gragson. With that, the spotlight is now on the brakes and NASCAR’s rules surrounding them.
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Earlier in the season at Iowa, Denny Hamlin faced a brake issue and raised concerns about safety, as NASCAR doesn’t allow teams to change those parts after qualifying. Asked about the issue again after everything that went down at Gateway, Hamlin had a fix to offer.
“Give us an opportunity to get out of the box,” Hamlin said to journalist Steven Taranto before adding, “If we gotta start last, start last.”
In Iowa, during practice, Hamlin’s brake pedal repeatedly went to the floor after a few laps. With Iowa being the fastest short track, the heat generated and minimal cooling available prompted Hamlin and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team to make adjustments to their cooling system to tackle the brake issue. The unapproved changes sent Hamlin to the back of the grid.
“We felt like we had a batch issue at Iowa that was then confirmed on Monday – Tuesday; once we investigated it all, it’s definitely a batch issue,” revealed Hamlin.
“I don’t think anyone’s willing to put in a braking setup for qualifying and then be okay with starting last; like, that’s silly strategy,” he added. “So I think for safety reasons, certainly it would be good for them to look at an option to let teams, if you have to do a major overhaul to the braking system, at least be allowed to do it but with some sort of penalty.”
Hamlin’s suggestions are clear. No driver gets a major advantage from changing brakes or other parts of their car they are not fully confident with because they would then have to start from the back of the grid. Meaning drivers and teams would only take the hit of a penalty when they believe that making the change is the safest way to go racing as opposed to racing on faulty brakes.
Hamlin has shown several times this season that he can fight his way through the field. After dealing with serious brake problems at Iowa, he still managed to finish fifth. Earlier in the summer, he also overcame penalties to win two races in a row. He drove from the back to win at Nashville after a pass-through penalty, then started at the rear at Michigan after failing post-qualifying inspection and still took the victory.
This wasn’t the first time Hamlin was suggesting making a change to the procedures around changes made to cars between qualifying and practice, but his thoughts became even more relevant after NASCAR itself discussed the issue around brakes in the Hauler following the chaos at Gateway.
Hamlin was also careful to make it clear that the issues faced by drivers at Gateway were totally different to those he, Chase Briscoe and Riley Herbst faced in Iowa.
“Those two were not related,” said Hamlin. “Ours was a totally non-related issue to the heat problems that were happening at Gateway with the guys with the blown rotor, so two totally different things. But again, I only know our situation, and that was we knew we had an issue, but we couldn’t change it.”
The discussions are currently centered around allowing drivers and teams to change brake pads between qualifying and race day. However, it’s not clear which direction the conversations are heading. Whether it will become standard for drivers to start races with fresh brake pads or whether teams will be allowed to make the changes with a stipulated penalty remains to be seen.
While Hamlin was asked about the brakes, his mind itself is probably on the throttle. He has already said he was lucky to still be leading the championship following Kyle Larson’s win at Gateway.
That said, Hamlin will not find a better track to bounce back at. Bristol is a track where Hamlin has proven to be a threat over the course of his career, winning four races there, but this visit is particularly special for the JGR veteran.
Hamlin is gearing up for his 750th Cup start, and what better way to cap off such an incredible milestone than with a 65th Cup victory that extends his time at the top of the leaderboard?