The Case of Denny Hamlin Vs. NASCAR

Upon the completion of the race last week in Phoenix, Denny Hamlin was asked his opinion. He gave it.
"I don't want to be the pessimist, but it did not race as good as our Gen-5 cars. This is more like what the Generation 5 was at the beginning. The teams hadn't figured out how to get the aero balance right.

Right now, you just run single-file and you cannot get around the guy in front of you. You would have placed me in 20th place with 30 [laps] to go, I would have stayed there -- I wouldn't have moved up. It's just one of those things where track position is everything."

Upon reading that it appears fairly harmless, and it is. Never mind this is a driver that started at the rear of the field and finished third, including an awesome last lap that saw him take the Phoenix Apron short cut to get by Jimmie Johnson, only to have JJ edge him at the line in the end.  So it's hard to hear those words from Hamlin after that finish. 

But what he said regardless of his race really didn't seem that harsh. He offered his view on the new Gen-6 car, admitted that teams are still working on the areo balance, and stated he doesn't think it's easy to get by the guy in front of you. NASCAR took that as so outright negative they felt Denny Hamlin should be $25,000 lighter in the bank account.

I don't have a problem with Hamlin's comments as far as what NASCAR's problem is, though I do have a hard time hearing him complain after a 43rd to 3rd finish. However I am firmly behind Hamlin as it pertains to the fine. Recently Brad Keselowski was called into the NASCAR hauler to explain some comments he had made in a newspaper. He was never fined, but at least had the opportunity to explain those comments. NASCAR never gave Hamlin a chance to explain his comments and skipped straight to the fine. That's where my problem with the whole thing enters. Not giving the driver the opportunity, and straight fining him, while giving another driver the courtesy.

What NASCAR did may have put a muzzle on a number of drivers. For this sport that is a bad deal. It would have been one thing had Hamlin went off the handle and said the car is a piece of s@#, it'll never be good, and so on. But he didn't, and NASCAR needs to understand that while teams are figuring this car out, and struggling with making it better not everyone is going to have a rosy opinion on the car.