NASCAR discusses the incidents with William Byron and Denny Hamlin at Texas Motor Speedway; Ty Gibbs contact on pit road
On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series took to the 1.5-mile of Texas Motor Speedway. The opening race in the Round of 12 of the playoffs is lined with drama.
Watch the video of the Ty Gibbs incident below.
Denny Hamlin and William Byron were in a battle for 2nd. A lack of real estate off turn two resulted in Byron tagging the outside wall.
A caution came out just a few laps later. Byron stayed in the throttle, drove into the back of Hamlin and turned the No. 11 under the caution.
Hamlin spun through the grass and then drove back to the bumper of Byron. Also under caution, Hamlin gave Byron a few shots in the rear bumper but he was unable to spin him out, which he later hinted, was the intention.
View the full comments from Byron and Hamlin after Texas
Additionally, Ty Gibbs showed some aggression on the pit lane during the same race. He turned left into Ty Dillon, pushing him near pit crew members and an official who were standing on the pit lane.
No penalties were issued for any of the incidents above, during the race. However, all of them are still under review and penalties could be on the way later in the week…
NASCAR addresses contact between Denny Hamlin and William Byron
“The No. 19 car has a right rear tire go down and makes contact with the outside wall. So, that’s the cause of it,” Elton Sawyer explained via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“The immediate focus is A, get the caution put out. B, we get the field captured and along that same process, we’re dispatching safety equipment.”
“Our number one focus at that time, is to focus on that incident. To make sure that A, there’s no serious injury there. Once that happens, we’re also got folks in the background, looking at the lineup. Making sure it’s a freeze, which is the time the caution comes out.”
“When all this is unfolding, we had a car that made contact, we have a car that’s on the damaged vehicle policy. Someone that’s managing that part of it. We’re starting to get prepared for pit stops. There’s a lot going on, behind the scenes.”
“Granted, the No. 11 spinning down the front straight away was somewhat of a surprise, to all of us. Cause we’re under caution.”
“Ok, ‘What happened here?’ We’re still focused on the No. 19. The window net comes down, Martin gets out.”
“Then, we go back and start looking at replays to see what happened with the No. 24 and No. 11. Again, we’re opening the pit road, going through pit stops. There’s a sequence of events that happens here.”
“By the time we’re getting remotely close to what happened with the No. 11 and 24, we’re back to green.”
Hamlin vs William Byron at Texas Motor Speedway (Video)
NASCAR will review the officiating process as well as the incidents
“What did we do well? What did we not do so well? And What are we going to fix going forward? Today and tomorrow, what additional technology do we need? What camera views do we need, that we didn’t have?”
“If we have the in-car camera of the No. 11 and 24, we may be able to at that point, make a decision. If we have that information, where we can make a decision, then maybe there’s a penalty at that point, giving the No. 11 his spot back, No. 24 to the back, holding the No. 24.”
“All of those things would be on the table. The direction we take is, what additional tools do we need?”
After the race on Sunday, Scott Miller took questions from reporters. He also addressed the contact between Hamlin and Byron. He noted that penalties could still be on the table.
NASCAR says William Byron, Denny Hamlin incident may not be resolved
Other NASCAR drivers react to the current no-call on William Byron
Kevin harvick reacted, “So these are the cameras in every car… crazy we cant get those up in the tower.”
“All of these situations should be handled during the race. Just like F1 ‘under investigation’ works at any point of the race, you issue a penalty and move on. That way when you ‘don’t see it’ you can still handle during the event.”
Harvick added speaking of the in-car roof camera, “This camera is actually NASCAR owned camera that TV apparently can’t use but sure seems like it should be hard to miss. Even if you miss it has to be addressed during the race. Just bring your social media rep to race control you’ll know everything that’s happening eventually.”
Kyle Busch commented, “No penalty for this?! Depends on who you are I see.”
Ty Gibbs vs Ty Dillon: Another incident at Texas Motor Speedway
Also, during the NASCAR Cup Series race we saw a dangerous situation on the pit lane. Ty Gibbs was exiting the pit lane as Ty Gibbs pulled out of his pit stall.
Dillon pulled out a little too far, Gibbs was forced to make a quick adjustment to the steering wheel in order to avoid contact. A second later, Gibbs turned left into Dillon, forcing him a full lane over to the left.
In the contact, Dillon came just a few feet from an NASCAR official as well as many crew members who were still servicing a car in a pit stall.
NASCAR will review the Ty Gibbs incident
“Oh absolutely those will be reviewed,” Sawyer said of NASCAR reviewing that incident.
“We’ve talked about in-race penalties with drivers having a disagreement over the amount of real-estate one’s using versus the other. We don’t have all the information, at that time.”
“And, even if we had all the information and camera views, it’s a view we may take from the tower that may or may not be 100% accurate.”
“In some of those cases, we’re better to let the race unfold, then address those on Monday or Tuesday. The same thing we’ll do with the No. 23 [Ty Gibbs] on pit road as well as the No. 24 and 11.”
Texas Race Results: September 25, 2022 (NASCAR Cup Seres)
Click here to view the current playoff standings after Texas
Ty Gibbs runs into Ty Dillon on pit lane
Video
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Denny Hamlin | William Byron | Ty Gibbs | Ty Dillon | Texas Motor Speedway | NASCAR
