Lately, NASCAR has really been cracking down on penalties, handing them out like candy during pre and post-race inspections. They’ve tried to clear the air since last season ended, showing everyone exactly why they dished out penalties, aiming for more transparency. But, it seems like the drama from last March is still hanging around.

Sure, most fans and avid followers might have moved on, but Denny Hamlin? Not so much. Recently, he opened up that chapter again about one of NASCAR’s biggest penalties from last year, hinting that he thinks the folks over at Hendrick Motorsports might be getting a bit of special treatment.

Denny Hamlin talks about the penalties this year and last year’s, silently taking a dig at HMS

On his latest podcast, Denny Hamlin spilled the beans about NASCAR’s recent fines and couldn’t help but throw some shade at HMS. He kicked things off by brushing past the chatter about Joey Logano‘s web gloves. “I’m so tired of hearing about Joey’s glove, so I’m we’re, we’ll just kind skip over that. He got a $10,000 fine. He Joey said he took a portion of the blame and called it embarrassing. Sure, it’s good. Let’s move on.”

But then, Hamlin didn’t shy away from stirring the pot a bit by bringing up last year’s drama with the penalties handed down to HMS and Kaulig Racing for some issues with their hood louvers. The whole mess unfolded at Phoenix Raceway, where all four Hendrick cars and Justin Haley’s #31 car from Kaulig Racing were caught in the crosshairs. The initial fallout? A hefty $100,000 fine for each of the five crew chiefs, all paid by the teams, and a four-race suspension to boot. But, the shocker—Kaulig Racing’s penalty stuck, while HMS managed to wiggle out of theirs.

Hamlin didn’t hold back, hinting at some favoritism or, at least, inconsistency. “And then just the whole controversy. Because Kaulig got, you know, theirs was convicted, Hendrick’s was not, it was very, let’s just call it shady, let’s just call it What. it What it was really, and and then nobody got a penalty or basically it was just, who knows.”

Denny Hamlin definitely hit on something that rings true. So, what’s the deal? Well, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel went ahead and lightened Kaulig Racing’s load a bit, trimming their “L2” penalty for some not-up-to-snuff aero parts from 100 to 75 points. Yet they kept the hefty $100,000 fine, docked them 10 playoff points, and benched crew chief Trent Owens for four weeks. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? But then you hear that Hendrick Motorsports challenged a similar slap on the wrist for the same kind of oops across four cars, and bam—they got all their points back.

Bob Pockrass from FOX NASCAR threw in his two cents, hinting the infractions might not be twinsies after all. But the thing is, NASCAR didn’t spell out the difference when they first broke the news, and the appeals folks hadn’t dropped any clues on why they ruled the way they did. They stuck to the rulebook with Kaulig, dinging them the least amount possible for an “L2” penalty that comes with a point loss. Meanwhile, Hendrick walks away scot-free, points-wise. It’s as if the first batch of appeals judges figured none of the Hendrick teams crossed the line enough for the penalty, while a totally different crew from the same pool decided Kaulig’s single slip-up did.

Without the inside scoop on what swayed the penalty adjustments, those of us, including Denny Hamlin, on the outside can’t help but feel Kaulig got the short end of the stick from the appeals panel’s setup.

And would you believe it? Even with all this drama, the biggest fine NASCAR ever handed down wasn’t for any of this—it was for the Stewart-Haas Racing team.

The biggest single penalty issued by NASCAR

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So, while the fines for HMS and Kaulig at Phoenix combined were nothing to sneeze at, racking up to a whopping half a million bucks, NASCAR really dropped the hammer in May ’23. They rolled out the big guns with their first-ever L3-level penalty, and it was SHR’s driver Chase Briscoe and his #14 crew who felt the heat. It was a historic moment because it was the first L3 penalty in the Next Gen car era, making it one of the heftiest punishments NASCAR has ever dished out.

NASCAR pulled out the rulebook and pointed to some serious no-nos, including issues with the overall vehicle assembly and specific parts like the underwing and engine panel. The fallout was massive: #14 and Co. lost 120 driver and owner points on top of 25 playoff points. Crew chief John Klausmeier got hit with a jaw-dropping $250,000 fine and a six-race suspension. The team chalked it up to a slip in quality control and didn’t even bother to appeal, especially since NASCAR made it clear the parts they nabbed were obviously not up to snuff.

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And it’s not like Stewart-Haas Racing got a break this year, either. They found themselves in hot water again over some issues with roof rail openings at the beginning of the year itself, which landed Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece a 35-point penalty. It just goes to show, that NASCAR isn’t playing around when it comes to keeping things fair and square on the track [maybe except when it comes to HMS?].