NASCAR surprised many this week by severely disciplining Austin Dillon for a race infraction at Richmond on Sunday. His crash with Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano was deemed too dangerous and he was denied a playoff spot based on his subsequent win. Now, Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gabehart, has released some truly shocking numbers from SMT Data.
Speaking on SiriusXM on Thursday, Gabehart revealed that the G-force spike on Hamlin when he was hit by Dillon’s right hook and slammed into the wall was 32G. That’s higher than the 30G crash suffered by 2004 Cup Series champion Kurt Busch last year at Pocono. It was also one of the most violent impacts of the Next Gen era and could have easily led to serious consequences.
“Some flag fouls are flagrant. They’re dangerous. That’s why we allow umpires to throw flags. And we have to get to the point where we’re prepared to throw flags on Sunday nights. That’s the only thing we got wrong, in my opinion,” Gabehart said. His suggestion, or rather request, is for umpires to make more timely calls in these cases.
Nearly three full days passed between the accident and NASCAR’s final ruling. With safety issues at stake, that’s not good enough for Gabehart. “I want to live in a world where officials can make decisions 60 hours in advance,” he added. Joe Gibbs Racing has received crash data from NASCAR 21 times, and Hamlin’s G-force spike at Richmond was the highest of those.
Will NASCAR try to shorten the decision-making timeline?
After the final decision was made on Wednesday, NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer apologized to fans: “I understand how our fans feel and I apologize that it took this long. Our fans have been patient throughout this process, so I’m speaking with them now to let them know why this decision took so long.”
He detailed the extensive data analysis behind the decision and why it took so long. Sawyer assured us the team is exploring ways to speed up the process, saying, “I think that ultimately we’ll be able to make decisions quicker, and we will.” Gabehart will no doubt be pleased to know this.
Now that the SMT data has been released, who knows if NASCAR will make a statement regarding Hamlin’s impact at Richmond.
