NASCAR's Mike Forde addresses penalty potential for No. 11 team feeding Denny Hamlin information at Charlotte

Denny Hamlin said he was driving blind to the points battle going on between Joey Logano and Ross Chastain on the final lap of this past Sunday’s Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte ROVAL. Nobody from Hamlin’s No. 11 team notified him that Chastain had a one-point advantage over Logano for the final transfer spot into the Round of 8.

At the time, Hamlin was the first car driving behind Chastain. Logano owned the tiebreaker over Chastain so once Hamlin made the pass, that was it for Chastain, who ended up taking Hamlin out on the last corner in a last-ditch effort.

Mike Forde, NASCAR‘s managing director of racing communications, said that had Hamlin been told Chastain was one point ahead and he then slowed down, “that would probably raise a red flag on our side.” Even then, Forde admitted it would have been difficult to determine if that was race manipulation.

“I think we would have looked into it, for sure,” Forde said on Wednesday’s Hauler Talk podcast. “If we heard that radio transmission say, ‘hey, the 1 needs this point to advance to the next round over the 22,’ something [like] that, and all of a sudden, he lets off the gas, that would probably raise a red flag on our side. … I think we would look at comparing lap times from previous laps from the same car.

“I mean, it would be tough to make a call on that, though, because tires were what they were, so lap times are going to decrease, passing is not easy in general, Chastain is the hardest car to pass, per the stats. So, there’s a lot of things that Hamlin could have used as a defense if that was a call that had to be made.”

Denny Hamlin wanted to know NASCAR playoff points situation on final lap at Charlotte

Hamlin did not see it as potential race manipulation. He saw it as him being able to do what was best for himself.

“There’s obviously two reasons I would want to know,” Hamlin said on Monday’s Actions Detrimental podcast. “One is if these guys are battling, it would give me a much better understanding to prepare if I’m going to attack the 1. I need to know that he’s going to be really aggressive blocking. That could have been a simple message. It then allows me to say to myself, ‘Who do I wanna race?’

“It’s not race manipulation if I’m trying to get the best result for me. I got no allegiance to Ford, Chevy, Joey, or Ross, but I have interest in myself winning a championship.”

NASCAR reviewed potential race manipulation at Charlotte

Going forward in the playoffs, Forde said that NASCAR will meet with teams and remind them to be aware of any late-race shenanigans. He revealed that they did review two cases of potential race manipulation at the ROVAL involving Cole Custer and Alex Bowman. “Nothing rose to the level of a penalty,” Forde said.

“We did review it, and nothing rose to the level of a penalty,” Forde said. “I think there will be communications, I think we have some meetings with teams, in general, every week we meet with crew chiefs to do pit selections. So, at a certain point during this week/weekend, we will just remind teams if they need a reminder, let’s not put yourselves or ourselves in jeopardy here. Fans should be coming to the racetrack and expecting a straight up race where each position is fought for as hard as possible, especially at the end of the race. If we do see something or hear something we don’t like, we are going to step in, which we have done now several times.

“The 41, ironically, we talk about him this week, he got himself in trouble a couple years ago at the ROVAL as well. So, we are aware, and I think come this week and Vegas and Talladega, maybe not as much so, but certainly Martinsville will be on high alert again. If we hear something, we will certainly react if necessary. So, we reviewed both of those. Long story short, the 41 and 48 we didn’t feel it rose to the level of where we needed to take action. But we are planning on making the teams aware that our eyes and ears are open to any shenanigans.”