“Certainly so frustrated”: Denny Hamlin unhappy with NASCAR over speeding penalty despite being “under" the limit

On his Actions Detrimental podcast recently, Denny Hamlin opened up on his speeding penalty at Richmond last Saturday (August 16). Despite entering the 409-lap race with a race-winning car, Hamlin’s pit road struggles and a late-race crash left the Joe Gibbs Racing driver settling for a P10 finish.

Explaining the intricacies of navigating pit road, Hamlin said that staying to the right is crucial to avoid speed limit violations. And that’s exactly what went wrong for him. A misjudgement in his positioning on the pit road resulted in a shorter distance being recorded, subsequently causing his speed to register higher.

“Well, what happened more than likely was I left my pit stall, didn't go all the way to the right,” Denny Hamlin explained (31:00). “When you cut the inside of the track a little shorter, your distance is shorter. So even if you run the same amount of lights and RPMs, your speed will show faster.”

“So 45 mph on the very outside versus 45 mph on the inside...while you're still under the speed limit...it changes the time, and it will register a faster mile per hour the lower you are. I certainly was so frustrated because I knew right off the bat we had a race-winning car,” he added.

Twenty-five races into the season, Hamlin sits third in the drivers' standings with 766 points. He has amassed four wins besides 11 top-fives and 13 top-10s. As things stand, only one race remains until the playoffs kick off at Darlington on August 31.

For now, Hamlin’s focus is on the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Scheduled for this coming Saturday, August 23, the 400-lap event will be televised on Peacock (7:30 p.m. ET onwards) with radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Denny Hamlin shares his thoughts on the NASCAR All-Star Race potentially moving to Dover in 2026

As Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reported last Thursday, August 14, NASCAR could be taking its iconic All-Star race from North Wilkesboro to Dover Motor Speedway for the 2026 season. Needless to say, this could lead to North Wilkesboro hosting its first Cup Series points-paying event since 1996.

Well, Denny Hamlin would rather have a points race at Dover. That track, according to the Tampa, Florida native, brings good engagement from the fans.

“Surely, they can’t be talking about replacing Dover’s point race, right?” Denny Hamlin said in a statement. “We had such a great fan turnout when it was 120 degrees, it was like being on the sun!”

“I just hope there’s no way they could be going from two points races to none at Dover. The fan turnout’s been good there, I don’t know why you would do that,” he added.

That being said, the 2026 Cup Series schedule is expected to be released this week. So, it’s only a matter of time before the NASCAR aficionados get to know what the calendar will look like and whether Dover Motor Speedway will host next year’s All-Star Race.