Denny Hamlin reveals James Small was livid, ‘nose to nose’ with NASCAR official over No. 19 Atlanta decision

Denny Hamlin revealed that Chase Briscoe’s crew chief, James Small, had a confrontation with a NASCAR official during the Cup Series race in Atlanta. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said that Small was not happy with NASCAR’s decision to take them out of the race after the No. 19 car was caught up in a big wreck.

“I saw James Small and one of the head NASCAR officials nose to nose when they told him he was done,” Denny Hamlin said. “They had been working on that 19-car for an hour. He must have told James that they were done because something was bent that is not replaceable.”

Hamlin continued, “When I pulled in, the NASCAR officials were kind of all over the car. …They worked for a solid hour before they were told, ‘No, you’re done.’ James Small was pi--ed, I mean pi--ed.”

Hamlin then added, “I think he wakes up pi--ed. I love his attitude, personally. He’s awesome. I looked at the 19-car, I was very surprised to see them towed into the garage. It looked fine to me. I don’t know what all they had damaged, but it was something that was catastrophic, apparently.”

Chase Briscoe didn’t agree with NASCAR forcing the No. 19 team out of Atlanta race

It was a tough break for Chase Briscoe and the No. 19 team as they were looking to have a strong performance in Atlanta. In the previous week, Briscoe won the Pocono race to earn his first victory of the season and first with Joe Gibbs Racing (RGR).

After his early exit at the Atlanta race, Briscoe talked about not agreeing with NASCAR’s ruling. “Yeah, I don’t know how bad our damage was,” Briscoe said to TNT Sports. “I know that they were fixing it, and we were about ready to go. And I guess NASCAR came over there and saw that our chassis was broke or bent or something, so they were like ‘Yeah, you guys can’t go back out.’ So, yeah, kinda wasted 30 minutes working on it, but just unfortunate…”

The good news for Briscoe, Small and the rest of the No. 19 team is that they are heading to the NASCAR playoffs because of the Pocono win. But their focus now is on the next race on the schedule, which is the Chicago Street Race, and that will happen on Sunday, July 6.