Denny Hamlin doesn’t believe Joey Gase should be fined for his infamous bumper-throwing incident from Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond Raceway.
In a moment that went viral for the Xfinity Series, Gase, after tangling with fellow driver Dawson Cram, ripped his busted bumper off and tossed it at Cram’s car. Evidently, Gase believed the incident was avoidable, and Cram was at fault.
During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin touched on what went down between Gase and Cram, and why he believes NASCAR should turn a blind eye to the situation on hand.
“So at the end of the race, we had a tiff. At the end of the race. Towards the end of the race. We had, Dawson Cram ran in the back of Joey Gase, and apparently, Joey, who is a car owner, as well. He gave Dawson Cram his very first start, apparently, in the Xfinity Series. And so, Joey was very upset, obviously, and so he crashed his car pretty heavily,” Hamlin started. “And you have to understand that the reason Joey’s really upset is that, you know, these guys, I mean, they work on their own cars. They face, they scrounge to get to the racetrack, every single week. It’s very, very difficult. You know, they’re just trying to make a very modest living, to say the least, you know, by getting to the racetrack every week. You know, he mentioned the financial implications. He thought that that was like a 60 grand wreck for him. That’s probably, I would say that’s probably somewhat true. You know, that car is probably destroyed.
“They’ve got to purchase another chassis, you know, fuel cell. There’ll be all kinds of different things. Shocks are all gone. Rear-end housing. So that’s why he’s upset. When we get upset it in the Cup Series, it has no financial implications, then maybe some prize money that we lost. We don’t feel the pain that the car owners feel. Now I feel it when Bubba [Wallace] or Tyler [Reddick] wrecks. I’m like, ‘Oh, gosh, dang it.’ You know, I know how expensive that is. But Joey, as a racecar driver and an owner, is feeling this double pain, which is why he took his anger out on that back bumper.”
Aside from the financial implications, Hamlin believes the moment was simply too good for the Xfinity Series, and he was impressed with Gase’s ability to not only rip his bumper off, but toss it at Cram’s vehicle.
“He got out of his car, I’m sure you’ve seen it on social media, if you’re listening to us. The back bumper is just kind of hanging off there It’s like (Hamlin’s daughter) Molly’s tooth, that was hanging on by a thread. And he just grabbed that thing and ripped it off. And he just, it was great, because you saw him walking with it. And immediately it caught my attention,” Hamlin said. “I was like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna chuck this at the guy.’ I mean, so he had a lot of confidence that he was going to be able to rip that last little piece off, and he did, and I thought he he nailed the throw.
“I mean, he got a little bit of damage to Dawson’s car on the right side, like on the windshield. I think it was just the tear off that kind of like, kind of split there. But it would have been awesome if you would could have got it inside the car, but that would have been an impossible throw. Like to put it in the driver’s passenger’s window. But I think he did the best he could, with slowing up. You know, when you’re walking and you’re trying to approach another car under caution.”
Time will tell if NASCAR sees it the same way as Denny Hamlin, but Joey Gase at least stood up for himself during Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, and there’s something to be said for that.
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