Denny Hamlin breaks down why Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 car got disqualified at Talladega

Denny Hamlin broke down what exactly went into Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 team being disqualified last Sunday at Talladega.

A P2 finish for Harvick turned into P38 following inspection, and many were disappointed for the veteran driver. Nevertheless, Hamlin applauded NASCAR for sticking to their rule-book, even if it meant disqualifying Harvick, who’s retirement is coming after the final race of the season.

“Just to kind of wrap of Talladega though, we did have a DQ. You know, I don’t know how to comment on it, because I really like (Harvick’s Crew Chief) Rodney [Childers] and the No. 4 team, so I probably should say less here than I should say more. You know, I like them as competitors. The No. 4 team, the No. 11 team has always gotten along, really well. … So I’ll certainly say less. But you know, it just seems like Rodney has his side, and NASCAR has their side, and their side is just to uphold the rule book to the top degree. I applaud them on doing that, because the precedent was set with us, when we had tape on the nose,” Hamlin explained, via Actions Detrimental. “We showed everyone, we said, ‘Look, here’s what we did, just so there’s no misconstrued information. We were very forthright in that information.’ I really thought that that was the right move by JGR, to just say, ‘Listen, we’re not appealing. Here’s what we did.’ … But just to be fair and inform our audience, what NASCAR deemed to disqualify them, the windshield, because of bolts not being there, it caused the windshield to not be flush, with the greenhouse. To be transparent and honest, that is an advantage.

“If you would want things to go a certain way, if you were to fasten the windshield to the greenhouse, which you do, you would want it to unfasten itself, not fasten itself. So you’re not probably going to take extra lengths to make sure that everything is super tight. … Aerodynamically, it would be advantageous for the windshield to be higher than the greenhouse that it bolts to, because it would then deflect air. … So what Rodney is saying happened during the course of the race, is that it was buffering, and it caused these bolts to come loose. That’s the story. That’s his story to tell, and we don’t know because we don’t have the information and the pictures to prove otherwise. But NASCAR is just saying, ‘Well they’re not in, and they’re loose, so we have to uphold our rule book, because that’s what we’ve done in the past.’ So that’s pretty much all it is, but certainly how his car ended the race would be advantageous to performance, versus detrimental.”

At the least, Denny Hamlin provided an eloquent answer as to why Kevin Harvick’s team had an advantage on Sunday. His disqualification was justified, even if it hurt to see it happen to the No. 4 team at Talladega.