Denny Hamlin agrees with NASCAR’s call to remove Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell from the playoff picture following the final lap of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, but lamented the influence of the manufacturers in NASCAR Cup Series competition while talking about his “Actions.” “Detrimental” podcast on Monday.

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Bell, trailing William Byron by a single point as the white flag waved in Sunday’s race at Martinsville, mounted the outside retaining wall on the exit of turn four, a move NASCAR deemed a violation of established safety protocols. after Ross Chastain’s “Hail.” Melon” in Martinsville in 2022.

While Hamlin does not believe Bell’s move was intentional or necessary, he accepted NASCAR’s position of penalizing Bell based on conversations that took place after Chastain’s move that earned her a Championship 4 berth two years ago. .

“In the end, I think they made the right decision,” Hamlin said. “I don’t like it, but they wanted to keep us from jumping in the final laps to gain or defend positions. C-Bell didn’t have to. “There was probably a bit of panic at that point.”

Hamlin believes Bell overshot the third turn, wanting to get into position to move forward and avoid the slowing car of Bubba Wallace, who drives for the 23XI Racing team, co-owned by Hamlin and Michael Jordan.

“I can’t emphasize it enough, once you got off the concrete and onto the asphalt, you saw how dirty the cars were, right, after the race? All of that is in that lane. When you hit it, it’s literally like hitting a patch of ice on the road in the dead of winter.

“C-Bell hit the wall and, in a panic, just shot to try to get to the line as fast as he could. I think it would have been fine if I had just rerouted it and lowered it. Now, it wasn’t going to be easy to take him down. You would have had to almost stop, or get close to him and then accelerate out of the corner. “I think it was the continuous contact with the wall that they considered inappropriate.”

Hamlin also discussed the impacts of manufacturer influences on the championship landscape, both for the Toyota teams of Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing and the Chevrolet teams involved in Sunday’s controversial finish.

While Bell was racing for his championship life, Byron was racing ahead of the Chevrolet duo of Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon, with those two drivers side by side and preventing competitors like the Ford of Brad Keselowski from challenging Byron for sixth position.

This, along with Wallace’s dramatic slowdown in the final laps and several radio messages between the teams involved, have left an air of controversy surrounding the final laps of Sunday’s race.

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“We have been saying this for quite some time. The manufacturers have a lot to say in the results of these races,” Hamlin said. “The manufacturers, I’m part of one, but they ruined superspeedway racing.

“I don’t know what to do about it, because NASCAR is not going to do anything to the manufacturers. That’s their bread and butter. They don’t want to do anything to upset the manufacturers. They’ve been trying for a decade. Now or better get another in our sport, and they certainly can’t afford to have one leave.

“I don’t know what you do about it. Fine them the manufacturer’s serial points, right? Manufacturers actually care quite a bit about that. “We have to do something to bring this back, because it is happening too often.”

While Hamlin had not received further information about the cause of Wallace’s loss of pace at the end of Sunday’s race at the time of recording, he noted that NASCAR inspected the machine after the event.

“I don’t know what happened to car 23. I’m not in the store, it’s early Monday morning. I watched video and audio and he almost broke his butt with about five to go. Every time he entered the curve, he almost crashed. I don’t know. I have no idea what happened to car 23.

“I know NASCAR inspected it after the race, which is unusual for the 19th or 18th place car to be inspected, but they’re going to make sure that what they heard on Bubba’s audio is real.

However, he added that, had it not been for Chevrolet’s blocking of Chastain and Dillon, he was confident his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate would have passed Byron for the fourth and final Championship 4 spot before the finale next week at Phoenix Raceway. .

“If everything I think comes out 100 percent natural between all the cars and everything, I think 24 is out. I think the other cars were parked behind him. The lap times would indicate that was the case. It only took a car to pass him to get out.

“The question remains: what do you do about it? I just don’t know what can be done about it other than take away points from the manufacturer. Manufacturers care about who wins the Manufacturers Cup.”