“I Go Back on That”: Denny Hamlin Doubles Down on Earlier Stance on Penalties at the Clash

The 2023 NASCAR Cup season is well and truly underway, and the first significant race is just around the corner. In the buildup to the Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin first looked back on the recently concluded Clash at the Coliseum. He reflected on one of his comments about the Clash and confessed that he was wrong.

Overall, the race was a bit of a wild affair, as several cars roughed each other up. Later on, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver backtracked from his comments and admitted that some blame needed to be levied.

He mentioned on his Actions Detrimental podcast, “I went back and watched the Clash. I’m like, Wow! At first, I said after the race immediately, you probably saw on Twitter. I said, ‘You can’t penalize these guys for wrecking because all of us would get penalized.’

“I go back on that, I think the DBC guys got it right when they said, ‘You got to penalize the first couple that are just absolutely egregious crashing of people. If you do that, it stops the next 20 events from happening.”

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What else did Denny Hamlin say about the Clash at the Coliseum?

Initially, Hamlin was in a forgiving mood, largely due to the small size of the race track. So obviously, there was a lot of bumping and barging expected. However, when he looked back with a fresh pair of eyes, even he had to admit that some of his rivals’ actions were just not justifiable.

He continued, “You can tell, from NASCAR, some of those wrecks, you could tell when someone egregious. They lay into whoever they’re laying into, they don’t attempt to slow down. Don’t attempt to give the other person a chance to collect them. They just pile drive into whoever’s in front of them, and say f**k it, whatever happens, happens.

I watched the #14 (Chase Briscoe), I’m not sh*tting you, I watched him just drive and make no attempt to even make the corner multiple times.”

Now, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver will be looking forward to the upcoming race, the Daytona 500. This is a race that Hamlin has won in the past, and he can be considered a favorite to win it once again. However, the past few editions have proven that the iconic race is unpredictable, so it could also be anybody’s game.

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