“They didn’t follow the rules”: Denny Hamlin blasts NASCAR for allegedly disobeying rulebook as three drivers including race winner escape

Denny Hamlin has slammed NASCAR for allegedly not sticking to the rulebook and instead allowing JTG Daugherty's Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to complete his run. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver also mentioned Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher's missing roof rails post the Talladega race, which NASCAR apparently missed.

The YellaWood 500 turned chaotic with just five laps to go. After Keselowski and Austin Cindric made contact, a 28-car stack-up transpired, the biggest in NASCAR's modern era. Among the victims was the race winner, Stenhouse Jr., whose #47 Chevy's left door suffered from the collision and had door foam missing in addition to a hole.

However, instead of ordering JTG's #47 team to replace the foam under the red flag, the officials let Stenhouse Jr. continue his run. Amid the turmoil, Denny Hamlin slammed NASCAR for apparently not adhering to the rule concerning the door foam.

He said (via Dirty Mo Media):

"If there was no rule, common sense says, 'He's fine, just let him go,' and he won the race. The issue is the rules, they didn't follow the rules (26:29)."

The podcast's co-host, Jared read NASCAR's rule about the door foam. He said:

"Section 3337 of the Cup Series rulebook states, 'Energy absorbing foam blocks must be installed on the outside surface of the left and right side door. And B- door foam that has been damaged or crushed must be replaced, effective immediately, May 4th, 2022 (26:58)."

Denny Hamlin then pointed to the two RFK Racing drivers whose NextGen cars didn't have the roof rails after the race, and on which NASCAR hasn't taken any action yet.

"There's just so many others that you don't see. I know that the 6 (Brad Keselowski) and the 17 (Chris Buescher) had their roof rails missing after the race. The 4 (Josh Berry) got disqualified after the race because he had bolts missing out of the windshield. The 6 and the 17 had their fu**ing right side fins gone," Hamlin said (27:56).

If NASCAR deems Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s win illegal, the driver's 65-winless race steak would become 66.

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Denny Hamlin got lucky at Talladega as the 28-car crash proved beneficial for him

Denny Hamlin kicked off his 195-lap run from eighth place but dropped to 39th as Lap 4 began. Moreover, on the final lap of Stage 2, he got trapped in Ryan Blaney's wreck that stemmed from Alex Bowman's "sh**ty push."

While Hamlin's #11 Toyota survived the wreck, albeit with some damages, a turnaround emerged later in the battle. The cascading effect of the crash altered the JGR driver's steering angle, and he also failed to capitalize on the aerodynamic draft after the Lap 171 pitstop.

Nonetheless, half a mile away from the historic chaos, Hamlin jumped 20 track positions after the hiatus.

“I think that the damage that we had from the Blaney incident, just it really got magnified once we got to the tail end of the pack, and then we lost the draft because we just weren’t fast enough. So yeah, just … it was looking grim. And then all of a sudden, you know, I had some good luck,” Hamlin said about the turnaround via NASCAR.

Had the 'Big One' not happened, Denny Hamlin could've exited that Talladega race with a 17-point deficit below the cutline. However, after his P10 finish, the 54-time Cup Series race winner has a 30-point cushion entering the Charlotte race.