Denny Hamlin reacts to Kevin Harvick’s Talladega disqualification

Kevin Harvick’s impressive run in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was all for naught after NASCAR penalized him after the race.

Harvick, who finished runner-up to Ryan Blaney, was disqualified after NASCAR found his No. 4 Ford had a windshield violation. Harvick’s windshield fasteners were not secured for the entirety of the race.

The 47-year-old was found to have violated three rules: “Windshield fasteners must remain secure for the entire Event.” “All fasteners must be securely fastened at all times during an Event.” “Except in cases explicitly permitted in the NASCAR Rules, parts and/or assemblies must be assembled and utilized as outlined in the NASCAR Rules.”

Speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast Tuesday, Denny Hamlin applauded NASCAR for upholding the rulebook against Harvick.

“I don’t know how to comment on it because I really like Rodney [Childers] and the No. 4 team,” Hamlin said. “So I probably should say less here than I should say more. I like them as competitors, the No. 4 team [and] the No. 11 team have always gotten along really well… It just seems like a — Rodney has his side and NASCAR probably has their side. Their [NASCAR] side it just to uphold the rulebook to the top degree and I applaud them on doing that because the precedent was set with us… Had tape on the nose, we showed everyone in the public. 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 was the right move by Joe Gibbs Racing just to say, ‘We’re not appealing, here’s what we did.’ And lately, and I’m wondering, will NASCAR show pictures of it? Or, because it was at the track, will they not?”

Kevin Harvick’s crew chief chimes in on disqualification

Hamlin, who finished third at Talladega, said it was clear Harvick had an advantage during the closing laps of the race.

“What NASCAR deemed them to disqualify them — the windshield because of bolts not being there, it caused the windshield not to be flush with the greenhouse. To be transparent, that is an advantage… Certainly how his car ended the race would be advantageous to performance versus detrimental.”

Harvick’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, issued a statement in light of the disqualification.

“There have been times I’ve got caught doing something I shouldn’t have,” Childers said. “Today got DQ’d for the car buffering in the draft all day and some windshield bolts vibrating out. My guys had silicon on the threads and gobbed on the tip. Still came out. Not sure what else we could do.”