“So, they did acknowledge that they were willing to make up a rule.”
On Sunday, NASCAR raced on the 7/8-mile of Iowa Speedway. There was some drama leading up to the race.
During practice, Denny Hamlin was complaining about the brake pads on his car. He noted that the car would work for only a few laps before it went wrong.
He qualified with those pads. As he said, they worked for a few laps.
But, ahead of the race, Hamlin wanted to change them. However, per NASCAR rules, that would be a penalty. Hamlin pleaded with NASCAR to allow him to make the change, they did not allow it. Hamlin then stated that he wouldn’t run the race.
NASCAR informed Hamlin he would then be hit with a larger penalty…
Denny Hamlin explains what went wrong with the brake pads
“We tried to run something a little bit different, not unknown,” Denny Hamlin stated via the Actions Detrimental podcast. “Other teams have run it quite a bit before. I wanted to lean a little bit on 23XI. They had been pretty strong at this track over the last year or so.”
“I kind of wanted to lean on their setups a little bit more this time around since I hadn’t had success at this racetrack quite yet. I hadn’t found what that ‘good feel’ is around here yet. So, I needed to put someone’s set up that has run well and then let me learn from there.”
He added, “And yeah, just realized pretty quickly that it was not going to work for me.”
NASCAR said they would make up a penalty
“And that’s their argument, right,” Hamlin said. “We do not want 36 teams having a qualifying brake pad and a race brake pad.”
“I told them I’d start on pit lane. We have a major problem.”
“And they were like, ‘That’s not the way it’s written right now.’ And I said, ‘I know that. However, this is where common sense has to come into play that this is not for some strategic advantage. This is to hopefully keep my car from blowing a rotor or going into a corner dead straight and wiping someone or myself head on into the wall.’ “
“That’s what we’re trying to do here. So that’s where I wish there was an asterisk at the bottom of it saying, ‘But we will use common sense.’
“Speaking of making some penalties up. Listen, I did my best in that hauler, laid out my case. I said, what if I just tell the team, ‘I will not be going on that racetrack with those brake pads. I’m too old to be hitting this wall head on.’ ”
“They said, ‘Well, we would make up a penalty and it would be worse than what it would be if you just came in and changed them under green.’ And I was like, ‘oh, well, I guess I just need to go slower then.’ “
“If I lose brakes, I’m just going to put around the racetrack and end up however many laps down that I end up. So, they did acknowledge that they were willing to make up a rule.”
Iowa Race Results: August 9, 2026 (NASCAR Cup Series)
Links
Denny Hamlin | Iowa Speedway | NASCAR
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