Denny Hamlin insists Matt Crafton sucker-punched Nick Sanchez at Talladega, claims the Truck champions story ‘makes no sense’
Denny Hamlin insists that Nick Sanchez couldn’t be blamed for the crash that led to the bloody confrontation.
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Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO), Corey Roper and Nick Sanchez during the fight (Screenshot via Frontstretch)
Talladega is known for its chaotic races and high-speed wrecks. So. It’s no surprise that sometimes the on-track clashes continue off the track. The same happened this week after the Talladega Truck Series race three times champion Matt Crafton had a bloody encounter with youngster Nick Sanchez. As an aftermath, NASCAR fined the veteran $25K and the youngster $5K.
Both drivers gave an entirely different version of the incident, as what was caught on camera was the drivers being forcefully separated by the bystanders. Sanchez was the first one to speak up about the incident, he claimed that he was ‘sucker punched’ by the veteran, and he didn’t get a chance to retaliate. Crafton came out denying it and said that he attacked because he was threatened.
Sanchez’s mother called out Crafton via Facebook, and she insisted that her son was sucker punched. Now, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin has come out to give his take on the incident. He pointed out that the side of the story from the veteran driver doesn’t make sense, and given the circumstances, there is a huge possibility that Sanchez’s version of the story is more believable.
“I don’t know. If I were selling this to the court, I immediately would have a little bit of — why would Sanchez threaten you? Like, I don’t — I don’t know. That doesn’t make sense to me…unless Crafton was a professional fighter, you’re not going to land one square there unless it was, someone was caught very off-guard…I just think that the evidence, the words, the witnesses. It just leads into a sucker-punch scenario,” Hamlin said Via the Action Detrimental podcast (H&T: ProTalk).
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Denny Hamlin insists Nick Sanchez didn’t do anything wrong in the crash that took out Matt Crafton
The clash of the track was a by-product of a late race run-in during the race. Hamlin pointed out that the incident was just a normal superspeedway wreck and added that Crafton, who has over 20 years of experience in the sport, should’ve understood that.
“So, I don’t see where Sanchez really did anything wrong there. So as far as the on-track, it’s just kind of, I don’t put it on anyone. I don’t think that that’s anyone’s fault necessarily,” Hamlin said.
“That’s just a normal super-speedway wreck, where someone’s trying to hit a hole, it’s there, and then oh, it’s not, because it got closed. So, I didn’t see anything egregious there, for sure,” Hamlin added.
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Justin P Joy
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