Denny Hamlin on "Bowyerpalooza"

On Friday, Denny Hamlin had his own opinions about Clint Bowyer and what Jeff Gluck appropriately calls "Bowyerpalooza."

After last Sunday's race at Loudon, New Hampshire, in which Clint Bowyer held Denny Hamlin off for the win, Bowyer's 33 car was taken in for further inspection. It was found that his car was illegal and NASCAR took action, since the 33 Hamburger Helper/ Cheerios team had been warned the week before that their cars was borderline legal. NASCAR fined both Bowyer's crew chief, and his car chief $150,000 each, deducted 150 points from both Bowyer's Chase points and Richard Childress' owner points, and suspended Shane Wilson, his crew chief for six weeks.

Denny Hamlin a bit to say about that by starting with "I'm not too discouraged with what we ended up with [at New Hampshire], but I know we were the fastest legal car."


In the media center, he continued, "NASCAR has been very, very lenient on this car. And they've given these guys chances. It's not Richmond, I think they should just be happy they're in The Chase at this point because they were warned, and they werre warned before Richmond. Everyone in the garage knows that, so they're the ones who wanted to press the issue to make sure they got in The Chase, they got in The Chase and got busted."

"One thing I can tell you is that my car- this is the car I had at Atlanta, we blew up at Atlanta, okay- they towed this car all the way in and they destroyed the trunk, the tow truck destroyed the trunk. But, we never replaced one thing on the tail of this car and it just went through inspection fine. So, my car went through way more destruction than what his did just getting a simple push and my car is fine. You know?" he continued on to say. Very valid point made by Hamlin.

"At this point, I think that they're just trying to salvage their season basically and they're going to do everything they can. I understand that. The whole appeal process that they're gonna go through."

"There has to be a point where it's not black or white and it's no longer grey. If they let them get away with this sixty thousandths of an inch, then when do you stop? When do you break it and say "Okay, now we have to penalize." because there has to be a point of tolerance. If you go past it, you're in trouble. If they're gonna let him go, they're gonna open up the entire field to do what they want."

He continues on to say that some teams play closer to that line than others, there are other things that happen out on the track that effect the car that could make you wrong, but you have to take that risk. He makes a valid point in saying that if you go out on the race track saying "I can't get one bump on this car." you're not going to do well. But, then came the shocking, "In the garage, everyone has known for months. This isn't two weeks old, this is something that's been going on for months. It's been going on for a long time. way before Richmond."

Here's my opinion on this whole matter. I do agree with Hamlin, but if everyone has known for a long time, then why didn't anyone go to NASCAR and say "Look, the 33 team is messing around with their car and it's on the borderline of being illegal." I suppose if I were a driver just outside The Chase bubble and I knew this information, I would go straight to the source.

Later yesterday, Denny adressed some more on Twitter. Here are the posts:

"sorry all RCR fans.. im not bashing clint, richard or anyone else.. just defending Nascar on this one.. all these teams work damn hard"
"we all want a level playing field. Nascar just has to make that happen and facts are facts.. they had no choice."
"richard might have a compelling enough case to convince them and this will all go away for them. nobody wants to be called a cheater"
"ok ive reached my twitter limit for the day.. its time everyone just worries about themselves.. me included..."

It was surprising to me that Denny defended NASCAR on this one. Especially after he was fined $50,000 after his commments about NASCAR on Twitter.

So, here's my question. What do you think about Denny's take on "Bowyerpalooza?" Leave your comments below and I would like to do follow-up article about your thoughts and opinions.

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