Now is this justice for Matt?
Stock Car Racing History
Driver code more compromised than ever with Kensethsuspension
Denny Hamlin is not happy with NASCARs two-race suspension of Matt Kenseth for intentionally wrecking Joey Logano .
But Hamlinalso is more confused than he was before the punishment was handed down Tuesday to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.
Minutes after tweetinghis displeasure at the news, Hamlin called into Fox Sports 1s NASCAR Race Hub to expound on his thoughts. That included saying Kenseth was enforcing the unspoken drivers code, which now is more compromised than ever in the wake of the suspension.
Any race car driver thats been doing this long enough understands what driver code is. I feel like the driver code thats been established since racing ever begun, a hundred years ago, that driver code is more compromised than ever, Hamlin said. NASCAR has said in years past and they even said this year, they like the drivers to police themselves.
Hamlin believes that Kenseth, who has been his teammate at JGR since 2013,was policing himself and the drivers code when he crashed Logano into the Turn 1 wall at Martinsville two weeks after Logano spun him in the closing laps at Kansas Speedway while racing for the lead.
When someone does you wrong, they have an opportunity to defuse the situation by a phone call or talking to you after the race, Hamlin says. Anything like that, or talking through the media. Say they made a mistake. I feel like none of that happened, and instead it was kind of like sorry, sorry about your (bad) luck, youre going to have to deal with it and this is how Im handling it.'
Both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon have said Logano could have handled the Kansas outcome better to defuse any potential retaliation.
Hamlin also saidthe rules created by NASCAR are sometimes gray and we dont know what the penalties are each week, I think its kind of more in that line right now.
Hamlin went on to say he believes NASCAR is influenced too much by what is said in the media.
Everyones trying to do their job, but when the media demands some kind of suspension I think they (NASCAR) adhere to that sometimes, Hamlin said. Drivers I think had a very different opinion of this weekend than what media did. It sucks, sometimes I feel like theyre strongly influenced by fans and the media vs. doing what sometimes is the right thing.
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