Denny Hamlin explains incident with Joey Logano's glove at Atlanta Motor Speedway
NASCAR deemed the glove Joey Logano was wearing ahead of Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway to be a safety violation, and therefore, penalized him for it.
Logano, who qualified second for the race, was forced to start from the rear and serve a pass-through penalty. The glove did not meet “SFI specification,” violating rule 14.3.1.1 of the NASCAR Rule Book. Chris Knight of Catchfence reported that NASCAR informed the media the glove was “altered” in order to gain a competitive advantage when blocking air with his hand.
Speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast Monday, Denny Hamlin said he isn’t buying NASCAR’s explanation that Logano’s glove was a safety issue. Hamlin, rather, believes NASCAR took issue with the glove being “considered an aerodynamic device.”
“When he saw the news, it was not SFI approved,” Hamlin said. “Folks, that’s like 10% of the story. My guess is the glove was approved when you add webbing to in between the fingers. It probably needs to get re-approved because you’ve added material, and they need to retest it. But that is not why NASCAR probably had issue with this, because this is likely considered an aerodynamic device.
“So, you know, what’s the difference in that and me putting something in my pocket and grabbing it and then holding it out there? You know what I mean? To deflect air. It’s basically one in the same. So, while I get it, while that’s what the rule stated that they broke an SFI safety rule, this is not a safety problem.”
Denny Hamlin chimes in on how NASCAR discovered Joey Logano’s glove
As for how NASCAR discovered Logano’s glove, Hamlin believes he likely got ratted out by another team who saw the glove before the race started.
“I’m willing to say there was a whistleblower,” Hamlin said. “These teams tell on each other, for sure. For those of you who don’t know, teams — they call it a self-policing sport because when we’re sitting next to each other and watching videos of other cars — the NASCAR Cup Series is full of snitches. I mean, all over the place. They tattle tell.
“If they see something that someone is doing that is illegal or skirting the rule, they’ll tell the tower right away. They’ll send that to [senior vice president of racing innovation] John Probst or [senior Vice President of competition] Elton Sawyer and be like, ‘Oh, look at that.’ And they’ll say, ‘Oh, we’ll look into that.’”
The penalty didn’t impact Logano one bit, thanks to a Lap 2 caution while he was serving the pass-through penalty. Logano was right back on the lead lap and wasted no time making his way to the front. Logano, who had qualified second, had one of the fastest cars at Atlanta, leading 27 laps.
His bid for a win came to an end on Lap 160-of-260. Logano threw an ill-advised block on Chris Buescher, causing a wreck which involved Hamlin as well. Logano finished the race 27th while Hamlin, who led 15 laps, finished 23rd.