Denny Hamlin reacts to NASCAR red flag-caution flag controversy at Talladega: 'Finish was a sham at best'

After 28 cars were involved in a single incident with four laps to go at Talladega, Denny Hamlin and others were confused. NASCAR put out the red flag and while track cleanup was ongoing, lifted it to a yellow.

Cars were stuck on the track, others were moving while heavily damaged, and there were others still that were making repairs on pit road. Was the DVP clock going? Who was “wrecked” and who was simply “damaged?”

Denny Hamlin aired out his frustrations on Action Detrimental this week. He even went as far as to question the legitimacy of the finish.

“So I listened to what the reasoning was, and it was that we saw, we said, alright we gotta get this cleanup going,” Hamlin explained. “Elton says this is taking too long we’ve gotta get these things going. So, we went yellow. That doesn’t make cleanup go any faster, that makes it go slower. Because while we’re going around the wreck, you’re keeping tow vehicles, rollbacks, and all that from moving because they have to navigate us.

“Stay red as long as you have to, to get it cleaned up. That way when we go yellow, we can go around once, get the one to go, let’s go racing. That’s the proper way to do this. And you can’t touch your car while we’re sitting there on the backstretch because how that affects the finish is that, those, it is an art to the DVP clock for the teams.”

Denny Hamlin brings up good points. Everything that happens on pit road is crucial. Lifting the red flag was a puzzling decision. Some drivers weren’t sure if it was a yellow or red flag condition. Others were moving around. It was more than confusing.

Denny Hamlin calls out Talladega finish

When a car is damaged and on the Damaged Vehicle Policy, teams have seven minutes to make repairs. That is from entering pit road to making the repairs to leaving pit road. Then the car has to meet minimum speed.

If a team can at least get to minimum speed, they can make more repairs. A good pit crew can avoid going a lap down and stay in the race. Denny Hamlin says that’s all the more reason why NASCAR messed up.

“They find ways to repair these cars without going a lap down, but sometimes you have to go multiple laps down. But you use all of your DVP clock to get the car fixed because you know you’ve got one shot to make minimum speed. Well, you’ve got cars that are limping around the racetrack that know they can’t fix it. They’re just trying to make all the laps they can.

“And you’ve got others, Chase Elliott brought it up, that didn’t even make DVP clock that should have been multiple laps down, but they weren’t. And then you’ve got others that worked on their cars to avoid going a lap down because we’re sitting in Turn 2 not moving under a yellow condition. This order, this finishing order at Talladega was a sham at best.”

Is Denny Hamlin right? NASCAR at least brought this on themselves. When we’re talking about rules instead of the finish at Talladega, it says a lot. These moments are distracting from the product on the track.