There was controversy abound in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway this past weekend and Denny Hamlin - who finished 10th in the race - was not at all pleased with how NASCAR divvied up its penalties during the contest.
Unapproved modifications were made to several drivers cars at the race, including race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski. But to the surprise of many, there were no penalties issued to any of those drivers. This wound up being aggravating to a number of NASCAR fans and insiders, and Hamlin decided to weigh in on the issue too.
On the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said that the inconsistent way that NACCAR applies its penalties gets people agitated. But more importantly, its comes across as "biased" when NASCAR is seemingly unable and unwilling to apply penalties in a consistent manner.
"When you see Jeff Gluck and those guys really kind of getting agitated, this is what it is. It's so inconsistent," Hamlin said. "You have rules, and when you rule on one one-way, rule the same on the next. So, is it an accident the No. 6 and the No. 17 both had both pieces missing from their car post race? No, I don't care what excuse anyone tries to give. It was clearly manipulated in some sort of way to distort, and when it distorted, it fell off.
"So, it's just one of many, and it makes it hard to sit here and maintain a neutral opinion about it, because it just doesn't make sense on why sometimes it's a penalty, sometimes it's not. It just depends on -- it makes you believe that there's bias in our series, and whether it's true or not, that's the perception, and sometimes perception is reality."
Where else have you seen NASCAR act inconsistently with punishments this year?
Related: Denny Hamlin Had Perfect Reaction To NASCAR's Penalty Announcement