Denny Hamlin has Darlington win encumbered, crew chief suspended

Denny Hamlin became the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver this season to have a race win encumbered.

Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team have a right to be excited over their Southern 500 victory at Darlington Raceway, but the celebration is somewhat muted today.

NASCAR announced (via Jayski) that Hamlin’s winning No. 11 Toyota was found to be guilty of a post-race inspection violation dealing with the rear suspension. As a result, his victory will be considered encumbered, similar to Joey Logano’s victory from earlier in the season.

Both Hamlin and JGR also lose 25 driver and owner points, respectively. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team were also penalized by NASCAR for failing to have all lug nuts properly installed.

Next: What exactly is an encumbered race win?

Unlike Logano, who now is on the outside of the 2017 NASCAR playoff picture looking in due to his penalty, Hamlin was already locked into the field thanks to his triumph at New Hampshire. Still, losing the race win could still have an effect on his pursuit of a championship, as he’ll lose the seeding and extra playoff points that would have accompanied the Darlington victory.

Perhaps even more critical could be the suspension of crew chief Mike Wheeler for two races. This weekend’s race at Richmond won’t mean much for the No. 11 team given their circumstances, but not having Wheeler for the first playoff race at Chicagoland isn’t exactly ideal.

Fortunately, Hamlin will have two more races after that in the first round of the playoffs to straighten things out if things don’t go smoothly without Wheeler. It does make one wonder, though, if it’s worth the risk to cut things so close to the edge in terms of the rules when having a win effectively stripped is the punishment if you get it wrong.