Over the weekend, we saw what may or may not have been retaliation by Chase Elliott. Denny Hamlin says it was. Chase Elliott didn’t really say much but kind of agreed.
‘Boys have at it’ very much exists. It’s just taken on a different definition. Today, NASCAR cleared their stance on aggressive driving.
“That’s what the sport is about. Certainly, when we have to get involved, we will. We feel like our drivers know our stance on it. Our teams do as well.”
“That’s gunna happen when there’s a lot on the line. We don’t expect them to kinda wave each other by, all day long. That’s not our sport and we wanna make sure that they know they can go out there and race each other hard.”
What NASCAR is trying to avoid is a F1 situation. In F1, every time two drivers make the slightest bit of contact a message appears to viewers. That message is, “The incident involving #? and #? is under investigation.”
More often than not, those announcements result in a penalty to one of the drivers. It’s frustrating to the fans. After all, this is racing and light contact is going to happen.
“But, they also know, when we need to get involved, we will. We’ll handle that, as necessary.”
“I think Chase said it, ‘Different drivers are gunna race how they were raced.’ That’s been part of the sport for years. I thought those two put on a great battle throughout the race.”
Is there any kind of microscope on select drivers heading into Homestead?
“No, we’re going to call the races as we always have.”