Can Denny Hamlin overcome his massive points penalty? | GRID Live Pre-Race

now let's take you back a couple of days here talk about one big development that broke this week regarding Denny Hamlin he got hit with a massive points penalty 75 points to be exact and 10 playoff points as well being deducted from his total now the penalty occurred due to Toyota rebuilding the engine from Bristol in March Hamlin won that race and Toyota rebuilt the engine before NASCAR could tear it down and and inspected Jackson Toyota claims this is a quote Grievous mistake and selfreported it to NASCAR people were asking why they do B the answer of course being NASCAR would have found it eventually regardless but looking at this penalty do you agree with the severity of it and are you surprised considering Toyota were the ones that self-reported they didn't have to wait for NASCAR to discover it themselves I it's uh it was a shocking penalty especially coming out of um like the the fraction race being Bristol which was uh you know it's kind of hard because this is one of I mean it has to be one of the hardest wins that Denny's had in a while just a NASCAR win in a while one of the hardest wins also possibly one of the least engine Reliant wins that we've seen in a long time in the CB series and that's the race that the infraction uh comes from so that that makes me believe that it truly was just a complete mistake and they mess that up that that would not be the race to pull some engine shenanigans on that being said in the nextg car Nascar has made it unbelievably clear do not mess with these parts we will strike you down fast and this even though it was a self-report these are still some harsh penalties taking out half of Dy Hamlin's playoff points that is huge I mean you're talking about the regular season not mattering it matters but unfortunately for Denny Hamlin half of that just got erased so um huge penalty I wouldn't say I'm surprised that this was I mean if it was in the wings I'm not surprised that this is the strength of the penalty I think it's interesting the self report I'm interested to know the timeline when when did all when did the engine changes happen when did Toyota figure out that they screwed up when did they tell NASCAR what what what's the timeline on all these things I'd be interested to know that know that um particularly because we're headed to the playoffs now if this had come out in a few weeks and we're like Denny Hamlin sitting in the round to 12 like you're I'm glad that this all happens now and not a few weeks from now and also the fact that it was Denny Hamlin this wasn't like a you know Tai Gibbs wins Richmond in the spring and now suddenly the the someone's entire season is throwing a in the air I mean even like Denny Hamil's battle for the regular season title and those playoff points that has all that has all blown up here um heading into these last few week so um very shocking but uh thankful thankful for the timing and I guess the the infra the team that it was for yeah well I guess considering they took playoff points away as well maybe for once the points actually do matter in the Whose Line Is It Anyway jokes can be put to rest for a little bit but yeah we'll see obviously Denny Hamlin and Joe givs race are a great driver and great team I'm sure it's uh not a penalty that they can't overcome but it does certainly hurt their position and makes winning the regular season championship at this point for Hamlin virtually impossible and then uh we'll see if the playoff points uh come into effect as we uh get time for the cut off races uh coming at the end of each round so that's going to be an interesting Dynamic that's been thrown into this Championship mix here