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Denny Hamlin weighs whether NASCAR should have penalized Ross Chastain for cleaning him out at Charlotte

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones10/06/25brianjones_93
Ross Chastain
Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Denny Hamlin has a strong reaction to being cleaned out by Ross Chastain at the Charlotte Roval on Sunday. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin was asked if NASCAR would have penalized Chastain for hitting him if he had advanced in the playoffs.

“I would hope so,” Denny Hamlin said. “I think they set a precedent on that.” Hamlin then asked someone from NASCAR to let him know if that would have been a penalty had Chastain advanced in the playoffs by intentionally wrecking another driver.

“I don’t think you’re going to be allowed to just wipe someone out to move on,” Hamlin said. “It’s an intentional wreck, is it not? “

Hamlin continued, “I think certainly they probably need to address it. Hopefully, if one of those guys have an interview with Sirius or something this week, maybe possibly one of the guys will ask them if that were to happen, what would you have done? Would you have let that go or not? …I know they shouldn’t allow it. Allowing someone to get intentionally wrecked, what’s the difference in that and a right-rear hook?”

Denny Hamlin gave surpising reaction to incident with Ross Chastain right after the race

After Shane van Gisbergen won the Charlotte Roval, Ross Chastain was attempting to hold off Joey Logano for the final spot in the NASCAR playoffs Round of 8. When Hamlin passed Chastain during the final lap, Chastain wiped out Hamlin’s Toyota before throwing his car in reverse and speeding backwards across the finish line. Despite his efforts, Chastain was eliminated from the playoffs, and Logano clinched the final spot.

After the race, Hamlin was asked if he knew the position Chastain was in when he went by him during the final lap. “No, I did not. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know if I was racing for 10th or 30th,” Hamlin said. “I didn’t know anything about anything on that last run.

“I wasn’t very good, I know that. I missed my marks a ton. Just didn’t do a good job driving, but I saw the 1, because I didn’t even hear anything from the spotter about, like, closing or anything. I didn’t know anything about anything going on, but obviously the 1 was in a position there, and obviously we got caught in it. Yeah, I didn’t.”