Denny Hamlin's 'Fence Guys Hard' Comment Can't Be Tolerated in Dangerous Sport

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by Julian Spivey
The NASCAR Cup Series held its inaugural race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Ill., just outside of St. Louis, on Sunday, June 5 and it was certainly an exciting afternoon on track.

Joey Logano would go on to win the track’s first Cup Series race after a hard fought battle with Kyle Busch in the waning laps of the event, but perhaps the biggest story of the race was the on-track actions between Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin and then later Chastain and Chase Elliott in the first half of the race and the reactions from the drivers postrace.

On Lap 64, Chastain after a hard multiple lap battle with Hamlin drove his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet hard into Turn 1 of the track behind Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and contacted Hamlin’s bumper sending the No. 11 into the wall.

This might have been overdriving by Chastain or it might have been Chastain losing patience with Hamlin holding him up. It was hard to tell, but the replay didn’t look great on Chastain’s part.

Hamlin would show his displeasure with Chastain soon after by driving him down the track all the way to the track’s apron near the grass.

On Lap 101, Chastain tried to force his car into a three-wide position shortly after a restart and contacted the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Elliott spinning out the No. 9.

This incident felt like a racing deal to me, but it was less than halfway through the race and Chastain likely didn’t need to be that aggressive at that point.

On the subsequent restart Elliott showed his displeasure with Chastain by bumping the side of Chastain’s No. 1 and sending it up the track. Hamlin right behind this incident would do the exact same thing. Then Hamlin would essentially block Chastain for quite a while making it hard for Chastain, who had to meet minimum speed to remain in the race, to make that minimum speed (he would meet the speed though and wound up finishing the race in sixth position).

I felt like Elliott’s response and Hamlin’s initial response to Chastain’s aggressive driving was fine. The drivers police themselves and that’s the way it should be. If either had even spun out or wrecked Chastain I would’ve felt it the kind of payback you frequently see in NASCAR. It’s been part of the series as long as I’ve been a fan and almost certainly decades before.

I felt like Hamlin’s constant trolling of Chastain throughout the race after his initial move to run him down toward the apron was childish and unnecessary, but after nearly two decades of watching Hamlin compete it wasn’t surprising.

After the race Chastain was contrite and manned up about his poor driving during the race. He told Fox Sports’ pit reporter Jamie Little: “It was just terrible driving. At this level, I’m supposed to be better than that. I cannot believe I just made so many mistakes back-to-back. I just absolutely drove over my head today. It’s unacceptable.”

The admission of fault did little to appease Hamlin who’s promised retribution in the future. Payback is one thing. Payback is almost to be expected by Chastain and the entire field and sport. But in a postrace interview with Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass Hamlin said: “You gotta fence these guys hard to get their attention. It’s going to have to be meaningful.”

That “fence these guys hard” answer is completely out of line and it’s something NASCAR needs to focus on and proactive about with Hamlin.

I’ve always been a fan of the self-policing Hamlin speaks of and the “boys have at it” mentality of NASCAR racing, but in the past it’s mostly been something the drivers have handled well and as safely as possible. Saying you’ve got to “fence these guys hard” is pretty damn close to saying, “if he gets hurt I don’t care.”

We have to keep in mind that auto racing is a dangerous sport, and the governing body doesn’t need its drivers going around saying they’re going to put other drivers in potential harm’s way and “fence these guys hard” is potentially doing just that. Hamlin should know better than this as he’s one of the drivers who’s been hurt the most by over-aggressive driving by his competitors. Hamlin broke a vertebra in his back in a 2014 Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. and had to be airlifted to a local hospital after he and Logano essentially got into a pissing contest racing for the win at the end of the race. So, Hamlin knows firsthand the dangers of the sport. This makes his postrace comments at Gateway on Sunday even more infuriating.

If Hamlin wants to spin out Chastain at the Sonoma Raceway road course this upcoming weekend or at a short track in the future I think that’s fine. I think Chastain would probably admit it’s comeuppance for how he raced Hamlin this past weekend. I don’t think NASCAR should or would step in at that point either.

But I do believe NASCAR needs to speak to Hamlin and let him know his actions toward Chastain will be watched closely and if he does something severe like “fencing him hard” he should be punished severely, probably more severely than any driver has ever been punished for intentionally wrecking another competitor. The sport can’t take safety lightly and drivers threatening to “fence guys hard” should not be tolerated.

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