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Sprint Cup
CUP: Hamlin Talks About Fines
Denny Hamlin fielded questions on Friday about his recent fine for criticizing NASCAR...
Denny Hamlin was surprisingly a non-factor at Kansas. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
On Friday at Pocono Raceway, Denny Hamlin met with the media for the first time since it was reported that NASCAR was issuing secret fines to drivers who say things that the racing series feels are harmful to its brand.
Hamlin acknowledged that he was one of the two drivers issued fines – reportedly for $50,000 – and answered several other questions about the situation.
The following is an unedited transcript of the press conference:
Q: What can you say about the fine you received?
Hamlin: “I understand why, I know why they did it. Whether you agree with it or not, it happened. They’re in control. I’ve always been raised to speak my mind and be maybe too over opinionated at times. Like I’ve told those guys, I hope to be here in 15, 20 years and if that’s the case, I’d like to have a healthy sport going on to have a long career. We’re all in it together and I understand that. I definitely understand it. I don’t really know what it was. It’s more than likely the Twitter comments more than anything that kind of got me in trouble with them. I guess the Chicago weekend talking about some of the Nationwide stuff. Most of those conversations were all direct messages to one person. It wasn’t really sent out to the public, to all the followers. I understand it, but whether you agree with it or not, we all have to work together to make this all better.”
Q: How will this change the way you communicate your thoughts on the sport?
Hamlin: “I think there’s a better way to do it. Up until two weeks ago, I didn’t have Mike Helton’s phone number or Steve O’Donnell’s phone number — nobody’s phone number. How was I going to voice my opinion if I didn’t know how to get in touch with them? I’m sure I could have, but on the other hand, Jim Hunter said, ‘Hey, voice your opinion through the media and it will get to us, it’s always worked.’ But they said don’t do that. It’s kind of contradictory, but I understand there is a better way to do it now. Still, it’s tough for me because I do feel like I want to make things better and I never really criticize anyone, I just want to voice my opinion and where I think we should go with the sport.”
Q: How does this fine compare to what other sports do?
Hamlin: “The aspect of it is, it seems like we are trying to model ourselves somewhat over those (other sports), but it’s such a unique sport. This isn’t head-to-head competition like it is in other sports. A lot of it has to do with luck and all that stuff comes in to play. That’s why we have the 36 week schedule and not a 10 or five. It takes a long time to determine who the real champion is during the course of the year. Even though we at times model ourselves after other sports, I think we have a unique enough sport that we have stood on our own for a long time and I think we could in the future as well. Everyone, that entire France family, has done a good job of getting us to this point right now.”
Q: Was this fine similar to what other sports do?
Hamlin: “It is, it’s no different. That’s the thing, NASCAR is probably the last one to really fine people based off of what they say, whether it shows a negative outlook. You can’t really say, ‘Where’s this coming from?’ because it is in other sports. I think a lot of times that’s kind of how we’ve gotten some of the changes that we’ve wanted in years past. I’m different in the aspect that I came from the Late Model series and watching races to the Cup Series in one year — faster than most of those guys that have been here for 20 years. I was just a race fan on the other side of the fence five years ago, six years ago. I feel like I have a pretty good heart beat of what the fans like to see and what they don’t like to see and things like that. I like to tell NASCAR those things, but it never seems like before a month ago, we never got together to figure out what that is. Now I really do believe that they have listened with the whole Talladega thing last year. They really are working to make it better. I was probably just jumping the gun a little bit. A lot of team people had teams with NASCAR a month before us and I thought we weren’t going to have our chance to voice our opinion and that’s where I got frustrated and vented through Twitter.”
Q: Why was this fine handled in a secretive nature?
Hamlin: “That I don’t know. Without getting in word for word, what I asked was what the point of fining me if you’re not going to tell anyone. They said, ‘Hopefully it will keep anyone from bad mouthing us.’ Well no one knows. Maybe young guys coming up, if you say, ‘Hey you fined Denny Hamlin for an X amount of dollars for saying this,’ I think you’ll have people in the future saying they need to stay away from those comments. I think in the future, all this coming out is a positive thing, it really is. It’s going to turn into a good thing. Even though they might not have wanted everyone to know, now that they do I think it happened for a reason and it’s going to make our sport better.”
Q: What are you not allowed to say?
Hamlin: “I don’t know. They did give me a pretty good log book of all the negative things I’ve had to say over the last couple of months. They were just for sure. Anybody that follows me on Twitter, probably half of them follow me for the quotes here and there.”
Q: How much was the fine?
Hamlin: “I can’t say that. There’s been illegal parts in the garage that have not gotten hit as bad as I did.”
Hamlin acknowledged that he was one of the two drivers issued fines – reportedly for $50,000 – and answered several other questions about the situation.
The following is an unedited transcript of the press conference:
Q: What can you say about the fine you received?
Hamlin: “I understand why, I know why they did it. Whether you agree with it or not, it happened. They’re in control. I’ve always been raised to speak my mind and be maybe too over opinionated at times. Like I’ve told those guys, I hope to be here in 15, 20 years and if that’s the case, I’d like to have a healthy sport going on to have a long career. We’re all in it together and I understand that. I definitely understand it. I don’t really know what it was. It’s more than likely the Twitter comments more than anything that kind of got me in trouble with them. I guess the Chicago weekend talking about some of the Nationwide stuff. Most of those conversations were all direct messages to one person. It wasn’t really sent out to the public, to all the followers. I understand it, but whether you agree with it or not, we all have to work together to make this all better.”
Q: How will this change the way you communicate your thoughts on the sport?
Hamlin: “I think there’s a better way to do it. Up until two weeks ago, I didn’t have Mike Helton’s phone number or Steve O’Donnell’s phone number — nobody’s phone number. How was I going to voice my opinion if I didn’t know how to get in touch with them? I’m sure I could have, but on the other hand, Jim Hunter said, ‘Hey, voice your opinion through the media and it will get to us, it’s always worked.’ But they said don’t do that. It’s kind of contradictory, but I understand there is a better way to do it now. Still, it’s tough for me because I do feel like I want to make things better and I never really criticize anyone, I just want to voice my opinion and where I think we should go with the sport.”
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Q: How does this fine compare to what other sports do?
Hamlin: “The aspect of it is, it seems like we are trying to model ourselves somewhat over those (other sports), but it’s such a unique sport. This isn’t head-to-head competition like it is in other sports. A lot of it has to do with luck and all that stuff comes in to play. That’s why we have the 36 week schedule and not a 10 or five. It takes a long time to determine who the real champion is during the course of the year. Even though we at times model ourselves after other sports, I think we have a unique enough sport that we have stood on our own for a long time and I think we could in the future as well. Everyone, that entire France family, has done a good job of getting us to this point right now.”
Q: Was this fine similar to what other sports do?
Hamlin: “It is, it’s no different. That’s the thing, NASCAR is probably the last one to really fine people based off of what they say, whether it shows a negative outlook. You can’t really say, ‘Where’s this coming from?’ because it is in other sports. I think a lot of times that’s kind of how we’ve gotten some of the changes that we’ve wanted in years past. I’m different in the aspect that I came from the Late Model series and watching races to the Cup Series in one year — faster than most of those guys that have been here for 20 years. I was just a race fan on the other side of the fence five years ago, six years ago. I feel like I have a pretty good heart beat of what the fans like to see and what they don’t like to see and things like that. I like to tell NASCAR those things, but it never seems like before a month ago, we never got together to figure out what that is. Now I really do believe that they have listened with the whole Talladega thing last year. They really are working to make it better. I was probably just jumping the gun a little bit. A lot of team people had teams with NASCAR a month before us and I thought we weren’t going to have our chance to voice our opinion and that’s where I got frustrated and vented through Twitter.”
Q: Why was this fine handled in a secretive nature?
Hamlin: “That I don’t know. Without getting in word for word, what I asked was what the point of fining me if you’re not going to tell anyone. They said, ‘Hopefully it will keep anyone from bad mouthing us.’ Well no one knows. Maybe young guys coming up, if you say, ‘Hey you fined Denny Hamlin for an X amount of dollars for saying this,’ I think you’ll have people in the future saying they need to stay away from those comments. I think in the future, all this coming out is a positive thing, it really is. It’s going to turn into a good thing. Even though they might not have wanted everyone to know, now that they do I think it happened for a reason and it’s going to make our sport better.”
Q: What are you not allowed to say?
Hamlin: “I don’t know. They did give me a pretty good log book of all the negative things I’ve had to say over the last couple of months. They were just for sure. Anybody that follows me on Twitter, probably half of them follow me for the quotes here and there.”
Q: How much was the fine?
Hamlin: “I can’t say that. There’s been illegal parts in the garage that have not gotten hit as bad as I did.”
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