Denny Hamlin's Opinion Is A Costly One And Never Compare the Gen5 to the Gen6 Car, EVER!

Apparently after the Phoenix NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Denny Hamlin said that the Gen six car,

"Did not race as good as our generation five cars. This is more like what the generation five was at the beginning."

To me, that sounds like an observation.  Not a brash opinion.  And to me, it makes sense.  All new things need a break in period.  And this statement is just that, a constructive and EXPECTED statement.

And most of us out here in the land of fans may have never heard of the statement had NASCAR not lobbed a $25k fine at Denny Hamlin because,

"The sanctioning body will not tolerate publicly made comments by its drivers that denigrate the racing product."

I did not see Denny's comment as such.  Did you?  He did not call it a flying brick.  He did not say it sucks.  He just suggested (to me) that it still needs some work.

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As far as I know, most professional sports have guidelines and rules about bad-mouthing their sport.  It's a bit of a defensive posture that protects the sponsors and backing entities of the sport.

When I was a professional bowler, there were distinct rules about not trashing on the bowling alley or its staff and various other guidelines.

But I saw nothing derogatory from Hamlin.

At this point in time, he's declared that he's not paying the fine and they can suspend him if they want.

He's also said he's done making commentary,

"I'll be honest. I'm not going to say anything for the rest of the year, as long as it relates to competition."

I can't blame him either.  So now the community knows that no one dare compare the Gen six car to the COT (AKA, Gen five) car.

Though I suspect they might be getting sensitive to the single-file car.  I don't make that statement in a negative tone, but from the observations I've seen so far of the up-front racing in the last few events from Daytona and Phoenix.

The product was incredible over the last few years, but so far, well, I'm still trying to reserve my judgement.

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And despite the rules, events or moments like this take some steam out of the fans expectations.  Now we are always going to wonder what was really going on in anyone's head.  And anything that they say, may very well only be obliging the rules, daring not to cross that line.

Drivers have been fined for various statements and phrases.  This overly stern oversight, if not more carefully balanced out, could make for a very vanilla looking sport.  Everyone is going to be just like Jimmie Johnson.  Well, without the Lowe's suit.

I suspect Denny's agent or team owner will step up and have a chat with him and we'll more than likely hear the prerequisite apology that's necessary in this world of sports and politics.

He'll pay his fine and move on with it.

But again, another odd and interesting eye-opener comes out of NASCAR.

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