SAD NEWS: NASCAR Has Suspended Denny Hamlin Today due to…..
The incident Sunday occurred on the cool-down lap after the race as Wallace was angry with Bowman, who plowed into him early in the event, with Bowman taking the blame saying that he was distracted trying to get his windshield wiper to work.
The 30-year-old Wallace said Saturday at Pocono Raceway that he wouldn’t appeal the fine and tried to put a positive spin on it.
“The penalty was probably the best thing that happened to me,” Wallace said. “I’ve been miserable for years, walking around with a persona that I’m not proud of. I need to apologize to a lot of people. … I’m just frustrated and trying way too hard and not focused on the right things.”
The frustrations Wallace feels likely stem from both on and off the track. While he sits 15th in the overall point standings, he currently faces a likely must-win situation over the next six races to make the Cup Series playoffs. Competing for a 23XI Racing team co-owned by Michael Jordan, he is the only Black full-time driver at the NASCAR Cup Series level and his activism in 2020 has made him a polarizing figure with a heavy dose of boos often greeting him when introduced at nearly every Cup event.
A discussion earlier this week with former Cup driver and current FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick had an impact on Wallace.
“He told me to show up and be the fun-loving guy that I am throughout the week,” Wallace said.
“That has been one of the most important things told to me — that people don’t see who I actually am on Sundays.
That broke me because I always preach about being the same person on and off the racetrack.
“It’s a pressure-cooker being at the Cup level. And the last four years I’ve been miserable just trying to walk around like everything’s OK, … just trying to carry this persona, ‘Hey, don’t bother me right now, I’m too busy.’ And then when one thing goes wrong, the whole thing crumbles.”
Denny Hamlin, one of the top drivers in the Cup series who competes in Joe Gibbs Racing equipment while also co-owning the two-car 23XI Racing team, said the fact Wallace’s door slam of Bowman was on live television made a difference in the relatively hefty fine.
“It being live and everyone seeing it, probably caused a little more of a social media uproar which then they responded to that,” Hamlin said. “From the team’s standpoint, … it’s a learning moment you try not to repeat.”
In their filing this week, 23XI and Front Row claim: “NASCAR is using the counterclaim to engage in litigation gamesmanship, with the transparent objective of intimidating the other racing teams by threatening them with severe consequences if they support Plaintiffs’ challenge to the unlawful NASCAR monopoly.”
They also request that the NASCAR countersuit be dismissed because it “fails at the threshold because it does not allege facts plausibly showing a contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade.
“The counterclaim allegations instead show each racing team individually determining whether or not to agree to NASCAR’s demands through individual negotiations — the opposite of a conspiracy.”
The teams continue: “None of NASCAR’s factual claims fit into the very narrow categories of blatantly anti-competitive agreements that courts summarily condemn as per se unlawful.”
“I decided to actually learn how to play golf about 2 years ago. Of course it’s a little seasonal, mostly for heat in AZ but also work and skiing! I thought I finally had it figured out last fall.
Then I forgot how to hit my driver to start the year off…. Until about 10 days ago.
Kyle Larson’s recent win at Homestead-Miami Speedway gives him 14 victories in the current NASCAR Cup composite body car, but he believes he would have more if he still drove the sheet metal version used in the series in 2021.
“I think switching to this car has limited us from winning,” Larson says. “They’re difficult cars to drive. You have to run really hard. That probably benefits a guy like myself.”
Larson cites the ability to adapt to new things as the reason for his and teammate William Byron’s success in the current Cup car.
Byron has won 12 races since the Next Gen or Gen 7 car was introduced in 2022.
“I think that’s an area (adaptability) where the five team really excels, and the 24 (William Byron) as well,” Larson says. “Young, adaptable drivers and teams.”
That adaptability includes aggressive driving on restarts in NASCAR’s Cup and Xfinity series. The composite car bodies now used in both series are more durable than their sheet metal predecessors and can endure more beating and banging without cutting a tire.
“When you look at the Cup Series and the bumpers and how stiff and rigid they are and how well they line up, there’s beating and banging going on, on these restarts to another level,” says Justin Allgaier, NASCAR’s current Xfinity Series champion. “It’s actually pretty impressive that they’re able to not wreck on some of these restarts on the Cup Series side. You know 90% of the passing that you’re going to do is going to come from those first five, 10 laps. I think restarts have become more aggressive and more haywire than they’ve ever been but it’s risk versus reward; way higher reward than risk.”
Allgaier admits he’s had to adapt his driving style during the last five to 10 years due to the way racing has changed.
“I would say as I’ve gotten older, I’ve probably gotten a little more feisty and probably become a little more aggressive,” Allgaier says.
Ryan Preece admits it’s easy to get “tunneled into being aggressive.”
“The style of racing that we’re in now, with the bodies being so durable, guys are more likely to put them, or you or whoever is in front of you in a bad position,” Preece says. “You need to be ready for somebody to wreck at any time on a restart. This style of racing is you get everything you can on a restart and if you don’t, somebody else will, and then you’re just going to be fighting yourself out of a hole.
“These restarts have turned into a brutal blood bath of just putting guys in bad situations.
There’s times when you need to take advantage of it, and then there’s times you need to say, ‘Well, this isn’t going to work out’ and you need to be ready for that.
I’m not saying you need to hold yourself back.
I think in certain situations, if you see something transpiring that’s going to be bad, you need to be ready for it.
It will be a somewhat historical moment as Legge, driving for Live Fast Motorsports, is the first female to drive NASCAR’s current Next Gen car and only the eighth woman to compete in Cup’s modern era.
“Everybody says, ‘What’s it like to be a girl in racing?’” Legge said. “And I don’t know, because I only have my own experience. I don’t know what it’s like to be a boy in racing.
“So I know what my journey has been, and I know that it’s gone for me and it’s gone against me, and I know where the struggles are. And I know mentally what you have to do to overcome those struggles.”
The 44-year-old Legge has an extensive racing resume that includes 47 starts in top open-wheel cars and nearly 100 starts (including four wins) in top road-racing series.
She has competed in everything from electric cars in Formula E to midget cars at the Chili Bowl.
𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐓-𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝! 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰
