Toyota apologizes to Denny Hamlin after severe Michigan penalty that could derail JGR’s championship hopes

TRD’s David Wilson admit they messed after Denny Hamlin received mega penalty for engine regulation violation at Michigan.

Toyota apologizes to Denny Hamlin after severe Michigan penalty that could derail JGR’s championship hopes

Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO)

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan last was a day of mixed emotions for Denny Hamlin. He redeemed himself from an early race spin with a top-10 finish and his driver Tyler Reddick securing the win was the icing o the cake. But his happiness didn’t last long after the sanctioning body imposed a severe penalty on him.

Toyota Racing Development, which supplies engines to JGR, gave the No:11 team the Bristol race winning engine, that was rebuild, for the Michigan race. They failed to follow the right procedure though as they should have given NASCAR chance to inspect the engine before reassembling them. Denny Hamlin was given 75 championship points penalty; 10 playoff points deduction and crew chief Chris Gabehart was given $100K penalty.

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Now TRD president David Wilson has released a statement on the disappointing situation. They took the blame and apologized to Denny Hamlin, Chris Gabehart and Joe Gibbs for the costly mistake. The extended the apology to NASCAR as well as the racing fans after taking full responsibility for the mishap.

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We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris [Gabehart], Coach [Joe] Gibbs and the entire JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) organization, NASCAR and our fans.
David Wilson said via a statement.
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TRD reveals the true reason behind the mistake

David Wilson earlier pointed out that Hamlin’s race wining car was mistakenly sent back to their Costa Mesa facility to get rebuild. The engine was legal and had no issues with it, but as they failed to let NASCAR inspect it, forcing them to penalize the No:11 Toyota Camry team.

Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.
Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. (Via IMAGO)
Denny’s race-winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly returned to our Costa Mesa facility, disassembled and rebuilt instead of being torn down and inspected by NASCAR per the rulebook. Although we know with absolute certainty that the engine was legal and would have passed inspection, we left NASCAR in an impossible position because they were not given the opportunity to properly inspect our engine.
David Wilson said.

TRD made the right thing by owning to their mistake and now it’s for them to make sure such incident would never happen again. They let down their driver, ruined his regular season championship hopes and put him a tough position in the championship chase with the playoff points penalty.

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