Denny Hamlin, who is in team No. 11, has been given major sanctions from NASCAR on Tuesday. The sanctions were issued under the new penalty system, and were imposed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for unsealed rear firewall block-off plates. However, the penalty is certainly meaningless for Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin forfeited 75 points, and Wesley Sherrill, the car chief and Darian Grubb, the crew chief were handed suspensions of six weeks. Grubb was also told to pay a fine of $125,000. All the punishments have been classified as the maximum that can be given for their fault, which falls under a “P5” infraction.
The penalty will not make any difference to his rankings and to his dreams of winning his dream Sprint Cup. This is solely because he finished first at the Talladega Superspeedway in May, and because of that he is in the chase already. On Sunday, he won third position at the Brickyard 400 where the winner was Jeff Gordon.
But for Sherill and Grubb, the suspension means that they will be out of action for the remaining season and will return only at the Chicagoland Speedway. The only problem is that Denny Hamlin will drop in ranking from 11th position to 21st position. But that is not an issue because, to be in Sprint Cup one has to be in the top 30. And because he has 213 more points than David Gilliland, it is not likely that anyone will be able to push him to 31st position any time soon.