Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts on NASCAR throwing the caution at the end of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta saying “it was the right call.”
NASCAR threw the caution at the end of the race after Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, and Josh Berry made contact with each other and it sent Berry hard into the outside wall collecting Joey Logano. Berry then came down the track and collected Ryan Preece before going back up the track and hitting the outside wall again.
Berry was not the only car who was crossing the track, after being hit by Berry, Preece hit the inside wall and then drove up onto the track and into the outside wall. Justin Haley also spun on the apron of the track before sliding up on to the track right in front of Chase Elliot, who narrowly avoided him.
A look at what happened on the backstretch during the final lap involving the No. 21 and others. pic.twitter.com/WInfHUQ61n
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 24, 2025
During his most recent episode of Actions Detrimental, Hamlin shared his thoughts on NASCAR’s decision to throw the caution and end the race, “It was the right call.”
He then elaborated, “If you ask the fans who want entertainment, no, it was not a good call in their eyes. But I can assure that there’s not a driver in the field that would want that race to stay green given the scenarios that were going on.”
“Because [if] you keep these races green [then] somebody will end up getting hurt,” he explained. “There’s just too much opportunity and the drivers are way too vulnerable when they’re sitting in the middle of the racetrack and cars have to go by them full speed to gain spots. That’s just not a good scenario for anyone. The race had to end under caution. Let’s at least applaud them on making the right call for safety because safety should always be number one and entertainment should be number two. And so it sucks. It sucks it ends this way, but we’re the ones that chose to wreck and so I just think it was the right call.”
Hamlin concluded by expressing his hope that this will start a new trend for NASCAR, “Maybe this is a moment. Let’s give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt that they’re going to change their ways. Let’s start a new trend of consistency starting now. … It is definitely different than they called it the day before. It’s definitely different than the way they called it a week before. This is the right call. So let’s start the trend of right calls right now.”
What do you make of Hamlin’s thoughts on the call?