NASCAR, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch leave Richmond with black eyes
The winner of a NASCAR race is supposed to be determined by the driver’s ability to maneuver his car to the front of the pack and stay there until the checkered flag. On Saturday night at Richmond, Denny Hamlin was doing just that for 386 laps, leading 385 of them. On Lap 386, his right front tire leaked and he began to back up like a brick, paving the way for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch to battle for the lead.
Jr started to open up a lead of over a second over Kyle Busch and it seemed like he had the race under control with only 6 laps to go. Hamlin, rather than pull into pit lane and walk off the track, decided to take matters into his own hands to try and determine who should be the winner of the race. When his tire finally blew out, he skidded to a halt at the top of the racetrack and stalled, causing a caution to be waved and leading Jr back to Busch for a restart.
On the restart at the turn three Busch and Jr were side by side when clearly on the replays you can see Busch’s tires spun hard to the right and slammed into Jr’s car, spinning Jr as Busch it passed quickly but not before Clint Bowyer had passed them both. them at the bottom to win the race. Busch in post-race interviews claimed it was just a hard race and thought Jr had actually slid into him.
This answer, if not backed up by video playback and the fact that in the last few races, Busch has either intentionally pushed drivers out of his way or verbally threatened them after the race to do the same if next time not standing aside when the king is coming brings doubt to every racing fan here to believe any self-defense response he can throw at it. Busch’s mishap with Jr probably never would have happened if it hadn’t been for Hamlin’s poor decision to try to fix the race to his liking. For this, NASCAR slapped Denny on the wrist with a 2-lap penalty, but at the time it meant nothing to Hamlin.
NASCAR continues to sit back and let Busch behave like a schoolyard bully and continually tarnishes the image that NASCAR has worked so hard in recent years to repair. A Fox Sports commentator was quoted as saying it will take a long, long time for the junior nation to forgive Busch for this melee. I’d like to go one step further and say that it will take a long, long time for all true NASCAR fans, no matter who they attract, to forgive not only Busch but Hamlin and NASCAR.
Hard racing, unwanted mishaps and true competitiveness is what the fan spends their hard-earned money on when they come to watch a race, not drivers who see they can’t win so they choose to do something stupid and intentional so your teammate can win. . Hopefully, NASCAR officials will get up in the future and slam any driver, regardless of who they are, if they’re caught intentionally trying to fix the outcome of a race. Oh, and by the way, a nice slice of raw steak placed over those black eyes will reduce the puffiness.