Denny Hamlin calls out NASCAR officiating after Chicago blunder

"I don't know whether they're willing to put the manpower into that," Hamlin continued. "I don't know if they're willing to spend the money to do that. You can't keep saying we didn't see it. If you remember Parker Kligerman at the (Charlotte) Roval, they didn't see the guy in the tire barrier. We're doing it too often."

Ware's crash brought out the yellow flag on the final lap of the race, ensuring Shane van Gisbergen could coast to the checkered flag. But Ware's 93 mph impact with the tire barrier happened 34.7 seconds before NASCAR decided to throw the caution, which allowed van Gisbergen to take the white flag and the race to be declared official. 

With weather moving in, NASCAR likely wanted to the race to at least finish under yellow, rather than in a lightning delay. 

However, in a situation where a driver could be injured after a violent impact, that's still too long for NASCAR to hold the button, even with weather becoming a factor. 

In regards to Berry's incident, NASCAR allowed the entire field to pass by pit road before throwing the yellow, throwing a wrench into plenty of potential strategies that could've played out over the course of the afternoon. 

"They saw Josh Berry, I assume," Hamlin said. "They saw him sitting there for quite some time. This was not a good officiated race." 

Hamlin says there's no question that the yellow flag should've been thrown immediately when Ware's incident took place. 

"That was a massive hit," Hamlin said. "You have got to throw the caution immediately. Regardless of what they tell you, rain coming in, possibility of lightning, the possibility of a complete (expletive)-show worth of overtime — all that played a factor, in my opinion." 

"They're saying they don't understand how big the hit was," Hamlin continued. "I don't understand that. You are not doing your job officiating if you don't see (that). I'm very certain my belief that there was a lot of factors, with bad weather really close, that played a factor in when that caution was called."