Denny Hamlin weighs in on Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski controversial ‘blend line’ violation
Denny Hamlin chimed in on the controversial blend line violation that affected Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski during the Brickyard 400.
Elliott in particular was fuming after being penalized for taking his car too wide when attempting to pit at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It caused a great debate as to whether or not you could go above the white line after committing to pit, and Hamlin made his opinion known on the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.
“The racing surface is always defined by a yellow line. We have it at Daytona. We have it everywhere. Even on mile and a halves, they don’t — if you’re on the bottom lane, on a restart, they do not let you go to the apron. They consider the racing surface anything above that line. So, I thought it was pretty clear,” Hamlin said, regarding the issues some of his peers had on Sunday. “I don’t know why everyone was (complaining). … There’s an advantage there, to swinging out wide. The advantage gained was two hundredths of a second. Like, it’s not that much. But they don’t want you going out there.
“Let’s just pretend there was a car two lanes wide, so the wider you swing, the better angle you’ll have. If you let people go above that white line, they’re going to go way above that white line. So, I think, they’re trying to keep you off the racing surface, and to me, the racing surface has always been defined as anything above the bottom white line.”
That seems like a pretty straightforward answer from Hamlin, and something we’ve seen at other tracks, aside from Indianapolis. Perhaps some drivers needed a refresher, after multiple seasons of racing on the road course at the location, instead of the oval.
Nevertheless, it didn’t burn Chase Elliott too much, as the No. 9 still managed a top ten on the afternoon. As for Denny Hamlin, he was caught up in a wreck and finished P32 in the Brickyard 400, so staying below the blend line didn’t end up working for him when it was all said and done.
Denny Hamlin updates health, reacts to hard wreck at Brickyard 400
Despite putting together a strong race at Indianapolis, Denny Hamlin wasn’t able to finish the race due to a late wreck. Going into the first overtime restart, the NASCAR veteran was collected in a fairly violent accident, and his afternoon ended in disappointment.