By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — Joe Gibbs Racing decided to have a little show-and-tell in the NASCAR Cup Series garage six days after it had a race-winning car and a runner-up car disqualified postrace at Pocono.
Just sitting by the Denny Hamlin hauler was a nose with some vinyl tape (commonly known as helicopter tape) strategically placed in the corners by where it would attach to the splitter.
It was the piece that cost Hamlin the win at Pocono, according to JGR. NASCAR wouldn’t go look to verify and probably wasn’t all that pleased that JGR was parading its illegal nose for everyone to see.
JGR’s show-and-tell
Sitting outside a Joe Gibbs Racing hauler in Indianapolis, this exhibit is apparently from the 11 car at Pocono.
JGR’s motivation could have come from several areas:
- It wanted to show just how little was done to the nose of the car, trying to make a point that even it was illegal, it wasn’t a disqualification-worthy offense.
- It wanted to show other teams what JGR did so they don’t make the same mistake.
- It wanted to show that it was being transparent on how it violated the rules.
There’s no doubt that having those pieces of tape helped drag or downforce in the car — that they were put on the car to help with the handling. But even opposing crew chiefs indicated it probably wasn’t the main difference why Hamlin and Kyle Busch finished 1-2 before their disqualifications.
So where does NASCAR go from here? NASCAR competition officials declined comment during the Indianapolis Motor Speedway weekend to discuss penalties and philosophy.
NASCAR officials don’t need to speak to get the message across that they are willing to go as far as necessary to enforce what they feel are violations of the rules.
“We have certainly seen way worse get by,” said Hamlin crew chief Chris Gabehart. “I did not expect a DQ. … For something that small to escalate to that level, there’s no way that everybody in the garage is not terrified.”
Gabehart swears he didn’t even know JGR was putting that tape on the cars, something that seems hard to believe.
“I am embarrassed to say, but it’s factually so, I, nor none of my counterparts [as crew chiefs], knew it was on the car,” he said. “This is a sport that takes thousands of man-hours a week by hundreds of people to put a car on the track any given Sunday.
“And if I limit us to the point in which I need to know everything about every nut and bolt, [our] 11 team will no longer be the winningest team in the last three-and-a-half years.”
With the new Next Gen car, NASCAR has said it would be diligent when it comes to rule enforcement because the parts and pieces come from single-sourced vendors and cannot be altered.
How will Chase Elliott get the trophy from Denny Hamlin?
The disqualifications at Pocono made Chase Elliott the winner. But it doesn’t sound like Elliott is interested in asking Denny Hamlin for the trophy.
That resulted in the first Cup winner disqualification in 62 years as well as 100-point penalties (plus 10 playoff points) to Brad Keselowski earlier this year and Michael McDowell in just the past week.
“It’s excessive for what it was,” Busch said. “But I get the process of this car and making sure the example is out there, and they did the same thing with Brad’s team and [McDowell’s] team.”
Hamlin, who also owns two Cup cars, gave an “is what it is” type of answer. He said he wasn’t up in arms over the violations and JGR shouldn’t have done it if it broke the rules. He just knows that it wasn’t a huge deal when it came to determining the finishing order.
“I thought we had one of those Richard Petty big engines in the car or something, but not this time,” Hamlin said. “It was a piece of tape, but they’re pretty [insistent] that that’s the way that they want it starting with this new car.
“I just hope that it’s consistent for everybody no matter who wins a race.”
Hamlin said it was his understanding that the JGR violation was for something…
Read More: NASCAR Cup teams still stunned by Pocono disqualifications