There won’t be many who would argue that NASCAR should’ve done more, and at least not done what they did in the whole Ryan Blaney-window net fiasco towards the end of the All-Star race. But would you go as far as to say that NASCAR should penalize their own officials for the lapse? Because Denny Hamlin certainly can.

In fact, he did. Quite directly.

In a recent appearance on Dale Earnhardt Jr’s podcast show, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver opened up (some more) on the late-race controversy.

“If they were going to bend the rules, then just let him come and fix it. At no reason, should we ever be letting a driver out there with no window net up. Especially, we’re about to race for a win on a green-white-checkered,” Hamlin said. “The probability of us crashing was probably going to be pretty high considering what we were racing for, an All-Star win.”

“He’s the leader and you know his window net is not secured,” he continued.

“My crew is gone for four weeks because we had a tire rolling down the pit lane because it’s a safety issue. I’m like, who are they suspending up in the tower? They need to be gone for four weeks as well.” 

Denny Hamlin considers himself a hard worker, not a top talent

During the same episode of the show with Dale Jr., the Coca-Cola 600 winner admitted something about himself that perhaps other drivers might not be able to.

“I’ve said that many times. I don’t consider myself a top 100 talent in our sport. But I’ve worked really really hard at my craft, and that’s what’s carried me. Between that and having one of the best teams in the garage every week,” Hamlin said

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He reasoned that as the reason why he doesn’t want to get in ‘a worse car’. “It’s going to expose me in a big way so I’d rather just keep things as they are,” he added.

“When that’s done, I’ll be done.”

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