NASCAR has now had a couple of instances where they’ve had to disqualify drivers in the post-race inspection. The reason for this is that the cars had not met NASCAR’s necessary prerequisites. A few weeks ago, it was Kevin Harvick and the latest victim was Ryan Blaney. The stock-car racing body did eventually overturn their decision but at the time, a lot of people were left confused. NASCAR did not give enough of an explanation and people started asking questions, including Denny Hamlin.

Denny Hamlin finished P10 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. This was four places behind the previously penalized Ryan Blaney. The Team Penske man had initially finished P6 but the disqualification had dropped him to last. It would have crushed the 29-year-old’s playoff hopes. However, the decision was ,overturned and Team Penske is still in the hunt for a second straight Cup Series win.

Denny Hamlin exposes Tony Stewart’s shrewd tactics

Denny Hamlin was never convinced of the reason why Ryan Blaney was penalized in the first place. According to NASCAR, Blaney had an alleged illegal front shock on his car. What was previously thought to be illegal about the shock was its length. It did not meet the length that NASCAR had set for all cars. But that was not much of an explanation for Hamlin.

On a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver dissected the circumstances under which the penalty was imposed on Ryan Blaney. Denny Hamlin said that he needed a show-and-tell session by NASCAR. Now that the decision has been reversed, there probably won’t be any session like that!

“I’m gonna need a show and tell session by NASCAR. I don’t know. Was the shock altered or did they put it together and not meet the specified length? And the teams are pretty diligent on making sure that those are the right length. How it ended up not being, not sure, but it wasn’t the specified length, that’s for sure,” Hamlin said.

The driver of the #11 JGR car brought up Kevin Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing’s example. The #4 team was disqualified at Talladega as they were in violation of Rule 14.5. 6.2. It says that the windshield fastener should remain secure for the entirety of a race, Unfortunately, the 47-year-old’s fasteners had come loose.

There was a lot of debate over whether it was on purpose or just an accident. However, after NASCAR did a show-and-tell session about it, things became crystal clear, at least for Denny Hamlin.

“When they did the show and tell on Harvick’s windshield where they said, okay, these are airplane-grade fasteners, this is not a washer, it pretty much told me what I needed to know on that, right? That these bolts did not accidentally fall out,” the 42-year-old added.

For Team Penske, however, all’s well that ends well. NASCAR admitted to wrongfully penalizing Ryan Blaney and restored his P6 finish at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The motor racing team was thankful to the stock car racing body for its integrity.

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Team Penske lauds NASCAR’s integrity as decision goes their way

Team Penske released a statement thanking NASCAR. They also expressed their pride in how Ryan Blaney’s #12 team performed in Vegas to finish in the top 10.

“NASCAR has shown a tremendous amount of integrity throughout the process which has led to this conclusion. We are proud of the effort and the results by the No. 12 team during the 2023 season. We look forward to continuing the pursuit of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship,” part of the statement read.

Despite being restored to his original finish position, Ryan Blaney still finds himself well below the cutline. Will the #12 driver be able to repeat his teammate’s feat from last season? Only time will tell.

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