Denny Hamlin Parked at Talladega
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Posted by Jeremy Dunn Oct 5, 2007 |
Denny Hamlin has encountered quite a bit of scrutiny over the past couple of weeks. Following his highly publicized quarrel with popular veteran Kyle Petty, Hamlin had another tough week at Kansas. He currently sits 12th in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings, 248 points behind Jimmie Johnson.
Hamlin was hoping to rebound at Talladega, however, once again, he has made the headlines, and not because he was the fastest car in practice. He was parked for 15 minutes in Happy Hour NASCAR considered his bump drafting tactics as 'rough driving'.
NASCAR's decision caught Hamlin by surprise.
"We asked them what was the difference between us and everybody else with the front and back bumpers being off and they said we were on TV while we were doing it, so I guess blame it on the television cameras. We were done anyway. They can park us for 15 minutes. They can park us for an hour. We're done," said Hamlin after he was summoned to pull off the track.
It is clear that NASCAR is trying to send a message to all drivers. But Hamlin was the unfortunate one who NASCAR chose as the example.
Bruton Smith is threatening to abandon Lowe's Motor Speedway due to his current conflict with the city of Concord, North Carolina. The conflict started when the city of Concord changed its zoning to prohibit his proposed drag strip, which would be located adjacent to the speedway.
The first thing I've got do is find some land and we walk it and look and then get an option to purchase and then we will start looking at the permitting and see if we run into any difficulties," Smith said. So is he serious? Would he abandon one of NASCAR's most storied speedways because he couldn't get his way?