DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Over the years, Denny Hamlin’s championship hopes have been thwarted in the most bizarre ways. The list includes a faulty roof hatch, an oversized piece of duct tape and Ross Chastain’s “Hail Melon.”
But Hamlin says this week’s penalty “definitely tops” the list. The question is will this be a case of Hamlin losing a championship before the playoffs even begin?
“It’s hard to not feel and be negative in the moment, and I am in the moment,” Hamlin said Friday at Daytona International Speedway. “I feel negative about it, not about the decision or anything like that, just about our season and potentially what it could or couldn’t do.”
The infraction almost defies belief.
Teams are required to run engines multiple times a season. The engines are sealed by NASCAR. This policy has been in place the last few years.
Toyota Racing Development handles the engines for the Toyota cars, including Hamlin’s. The president of Toyota Racing Development said that Hamlin’s engine was “mistakenly” returned to the TRD facility in Costa Mesa, California. There, it was disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR.
With no engine to inspect, NASCAR was forced to penalize the team. NASCAR docked Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing 75 points and 10 playoff points each.
The penalty will have a far-reaching impact and could be critical in a playoffs that for the first time has multiple wildcard races in the opening two rounds.
Hamlin loses nearly half of the 21 playoff points he had accrued through three wins and six stage victories.
The 75-point penalty dropped Hamlin from third to sixth in the standings.
Kyle Larson (now third in points), Ryan Blaney (fourth) and William Byron (fifth) moved ahead of Hamlin in the standings with the penalty.
“It’s beneficial to us just when you can get a strong car like that kind of get little bit behind in points,” Blaney said. “It’s someone you’re still going to to have to race, obviously, but it just puts them a little bit behind the eight ball from what they would be.”
Hamlin had an outside shot of winning the regular season championship entering Saturday night’s race at Daytona (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock). Until the penalty.
“That’s gone,” Hamlin said of a regular season title.
He’s in jeopardy of falling to seventh in the points — and if things go poorly — he could fall to far as ninth.
That’s significant because the regular season champion receives 15 playoff points. Second place receives 10 playoff points. Third gets eight playoff points and on down to one playoff point for 10th.
If Hamlin falls to ninth before the playoffs start in two weeks, he could lose as much as 13 playoff points. The playoff points are added in each round so the the loss could be compounded.
“That’s the gut punch,” Hamlin said of the penalty. “This format rewards regular season excellence. It allows you to not have a perfect day, one, and still be able to race for a championship. Now, I’m kind of back there in the middle to where I’m very vulnerable in some spots.”
Just add this the list of woes that have contributed to the future Hall of Famer still in search of a Cup championship.
He failed to advance to the third round in 2015 due to a faulty roof hatch at Talladega that cost him four laps as his team tried to fix it.
In 2019 in the championship race at Homestead, Hamlin’s title hopes were ruined when the team placed a large piece of of duct tape on the front of the car to improve aerodynamics. Instead, the tape blowed the airflow to the engine, which began to overheat, forcing Hamlin to pit. Teammate Kyle Busch won his second title that night.
In 2022 at Martinsville, Ross Chastain was two points out of the final transfer spot to the championship race — a position held by Hamlin — with one lap to go. Chastain turned his car into the wall and rode it from Turn 3 to the finish line, passing five cars and take the final transfer spot while Hamlin’s title hopes suddenly ended.
It will be up to Hamlin and his team to keep this week’s penalty off that list.
“You have to just out what’s the best path forward,” Hamlin said. “And the best path is just to win.”