Ross Chastain’s aggressive racing against Denny Hamlin, with the veteran pushing back, could have been avoided altogether if Hamlin had known what the stakes were. Chastain’s car passed the line in reverse, and thanks to Joey Logano’s crew chief’s genius, the three-time NASCAR champion made it through. While Hamlin clarified his stance after the race, it’s his crew chief now who is clearing the air.

This has led to Chris Gayle, Denny Hamlin’s right-hand man in the car, talking about NASCAR setting what can be said over the radio. Speaking on the NASCAR SiriusXM Radio, he said, “In some areas, yes. And in others, no, I think it’s still a little grey, specifically related to, I thought maybe we knew…And I think that NASCAR will give some clarity on that this week. I think, you know, you’ve alluded to a few tweets and podcast notes where people have talked about this and NASCAR saying they’re going to talk to the team. So, you know, I think that’ll be what’s needed. We’ll see what’s said in those meetings and hopefully walk away from there with a clear understanding of what can and can’t be said.” 

NASCAR needs to spell it out to the teams in order to avoid such incidents. In the final laps, Ross Chastain and Joey Logano were virtually locked in a tie for the final transfer spot, swapping positions lap after lap. Then Denny Hamlin, unaware of the tiebreaker stakes, took over Chastain on the last lap, which pushed them into a point where Joey held the tiebreaker. Chastain’s desperate countermove ended in both his and Hamlin’s spin at the finish, plus handing Joey the spot in the Round of 8.

But NASCAR holds strong to the belief that any communication over the radio about the playoff situation can lead to race manipulation, essentially outlining the outcome before it even happens. This doesn’t make things interesting for the audience at all. Moreover, Cole Custer was caught in the mix as well. And Mike Forde, NASCAR’s communication director, laid it down thick, saying, “If we do see something or hear something we don’t like, we are going to step in, which we have done now several times.”

And Gayle’s call for clarity stems from his regret at not telling Denny Hamlin. He added, “I wish I had warned him a little more that, like, you know, the one’s going to be desperate here and he might come and wreck you. But outside of that, I’m not sure what I could and shouldn’t have said necessarily, whether I would have gone over the line on something or not, or if I could have just told him that point situation of the one specifically, you know, in the last couple laps. So I just kind of moved on from that and, you know, wish I had warned him so he would have known not to get wrecked, but that’s about it. One is allowed under NASCAR’s rules.” 

And with Steve O’Donnell laying down the process on how NASCAR picks up on “controversial radio communications,” the teams had best be warned heading into Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but before that, Hamlin wants to clear the air on any type of race manipulation.

Denny Hamlin downplays any race manipulation at the Roval and insists that it naturally played out

Joe Gibbs Racing‘s star didn’t mince words on this week’s Actions Detrimental podcast; he flat-out shut down any talk of race manipulation during Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte. Then he laid it all out, point by point, making it hard to argue otherwise.

He said, “If these guys are battling, it would give me a much better understanding to prepare if I’m going to attack the No. 1 [Chastain]. I need to know that he’s going to be really aggressive blocking him. That could have been a simple message.

Hamlin admitted he was mentally crunching the numbers in the closing laps, weighing who he’d rather see move on. Sure, it was a little self-serving, but that is race strategy. Plus, he also admitted that it wasn’t his main goal to wreck Chastain and has settled it with him.

He added, “It then allows me to say to myself, ‘Who do I want to race?’ And it’s not race manipulation if I’m trying to get the best result for me. I’ve got no allegiance to Ford or Chevy or Joey or Ross, but I have interest in myself winning a championship.”

With Logano still in the mix and very capable of playing spoiler at Phoenix, if he makes it, every title contender is on alert. And all eyes now turned to Hamlin, chasing both his 60th win and his elusive 1st Cup Series title.