Denny Hamlin’s Team Officially Facing Suspensions After Bristol

What’s Happening?

Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 team will face the suspension of two crew members after the team lost a right front tire on track during Saturday’s Bristol Night race.

• This penalty was expected, and the suspension of tire changer Austin Maloney and jackman Joel Bouagnon is status quo. This is the eighth lost wheel penalty this season in the NASCAR Cup Series, and Maloney and Bouagnon are the 15th and 16th crew members penalized for this infraction this season.
• During Monday’s episode of Action’s Detremental, Hamlin addressed the penalty and how it will affect his playoff hopes in a rather aloof manner. “I have no idea who’s sitting on the bench, who’s ready, and it’s not even my concern.”
• Joe Gibbs Racing has yet to announce who will replace the two crew members for the first race of the Round of 12 this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Per Bozi Tatarevic on X, JGR leases teams to Front Row Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing, and has one in-house car out of the playoffs, the No. 54 driven by Ty Gibbs.
• Hamlin’s team is in the most comfortable spot in the standings entering this weekend, currently sitting 26 points above the cut line. During his impressive streak of making every season of the modern playoff format (since 2014), Hamlin has only failed to make the Round of Eight twice, first doing so in 2015 and then again in 2018.

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