Denny Hamlin facing penalty in second round of NASCAR Playoff

Denny Hamlin enters the second Round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as the team seeded driver at 26 points above the cutline but may lose two of this over-the-wall crewmembers for the next two races at New Hampshire and Kansas.

This is due to an incident on Lap 385 of the Bristol Night Race on Saturday where Hamlin lost a right front wheel around the time he made contact with AJ Allmendinger — which resulted in a crash and an immediate two-lap penalty against the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team.

NASCAR rules penalize teams that lose wheels on the track, and in addition to being held two laps on pit road, the Sanctioning Body would also suspend two crew members for the infraction.

In real time, crew chief Chris Gayle tried to make the argument the crash caused the dislodged wheel and not the other way around. NASCAR officials did not buy it and a penalty was called and served. After the race, Gayle still was not willing to concede.

“We don’t know what happened yet,” Gayle told Motorsport while going through the post-race inspection process. “There was definitely contact with (Allmendinger) and there was contact with the wheel nut at the same time, and I’ve never seen contact like that before, so I’m sure they’ll do more investigating.

“We’ll see.”

Hamlin addressed it during his post-race media scrum too.

“It is what it is,” Hamlin said. “We were the only car on pit road at the time and unfortunately, the tire fell off.”

Is he thinking about a counterargument or appeal?

“There was clearly an issue with the car,” Hamlin said. “We had just hit the wall the lap before so I can’t look at the suspension and tell if it was broke or not. Certainly, there was something there that was out of whack.”

If there is a penalty, Gayle feels confident that Joe Gibbs Racing can weather it.

“We are for sure, always prepared for anything that might happen,” Gayle said. “But for sure, we’ll be prepared either way.”