"Our Room for Error is Gone" Denny Hamlin on L2 Engine Penalty

well how about a reaction to the Penalty that came your way and how you feel about it after you've had a little bit of time to think about it uh certainly don't feel any better than I did you know finding out in the moment um it just it's it's really hard it's really hard in the in this kind of format when he works so hard in the regular season right to get all those bonus points it's really tough to see it just wiped away and so but it's it's part of it and we got to just overcome now what's going through your head when like David Wilson and them are explaining what happened to you uh just had questions you know try to get some clarification on exactly how what when and all that stuff but um you know they obviously uh were very regrettable to have to give me that information when they did and so um you know I feel bad for them because I knew that they did not want to have to bring me in a room and tell me that uh you know you know we're going to have something that is going to affect our season how do you respond Denny with this like in terms of do you speak to the team and say okay we've been kicked right now but we've got two races to go I mean how do you rebound from this yeah I mean you just got to so what now what I mean you have to just figure out you know what uh what's the best path forward and the best path is just to win right and win and just uh make sure you can finish races the best you can and um you know obviously our room for err is gone now and um we just uh we'll hope to to get through the rounds do you wonder what's next I mean my goodness and it's a long enough career but you've talked about all the crazy stuff whether it's Talladega roof hatch the hail melon the homestead stuff I mean and there's many other things it just seems like it's a it's a ongoing list and this is is this top it this definitely tops it for sure because it was you know something um that didn't happen in a certain moment right it was you know hey we got to go back to kind of tell you what happened a while ago so but I mean should I be surprised I don't think so but I mean it's um uh I don't know I just it's hard to not feel and be negative in the moment and and I am in the moment I I feel negative about it um not about the decision or anything like that just about you know our our season and um potentially you know what it could or couldn't do do you wonder do you wonder why this stuff happen keeps happening to you I wish I had an answer because it's so Random the things that are happening are absolutely random and so um you know it's not the you know it's still up to us to go out there and win races and and perform right and I think if we you know if we have uh if we have the results that equal the same as our performance we'll still make it and everything will be fine it's just the sample size is about to get real small and it just takes away all that room for error in a in a in a time where her sport can can be random were you and G have been able to battle back from adversity with I mean such a plum is this could this be the Catalyst that serves to push you to Phoenix well I mean I'm motivated every single week I really am to win every stage win every race and uh I feel like I put my best foot forward every single week um so there's always yeah you can you can get a little motivation from from things like this absolutely I think that the team um you know received it in a in a sense where they're motivated um I'm certainly motivated um but again I I don't I don't need motivation I just need results right and I just uh you know I'm going to do the best I can to get the team the results that they deserve each week do you feel like it hurts your integrity or in the way people look at you or do you feel or at least the people that you care about believe that it's a TRD thing and not J here I think or you're yeah I mean I think that uh negative people will have a negative outlook on it certainly um but uh anyone with any education on on the subject would know that uh it was an isolated incident and you know everyone makes mistakes to tell who had to tell you because I can't imagine and what was your first reaction where you were like you know were you mad at you handled it well publicly we haven't heard much from you who told you and what was your initial reaction yeah I mean it was the you know the TRD guys David Wilson himself and Tyler and Andy and those guys and and you know trust me I walked in the room and saw it was just me and my crew chief and them and Gibbs I knew it was something bad so um yeah it was uh listen they didn't enjoy that moment any more than I did for sure when was that Denny and secondly do the playoff points obviously hurt more than the regular season point so to speak no point matters until it does that's the truth is that it it it won't matter until it does and so you know we've the couple years that we've missed the cut from the final four it's been the the hail mailon and we've had the the power steering break at uh at Homestead you know so it comes down to a couple points here and there it just means that we're going to have to be even that much greater when we get down to the you know second and third round so I think um you know they they they told me you know uh on Wednesday they needed to meet and Thursday we met and was it what's the gut punch part of this that got you so down just I knew you know you celebrate you know these onepoint stage victories and and race victories so much because of you know that man every round I've got that and when I look at like you know we're in contention for the regular season that's gone you know what we're potentially lost and could lose more um you know like blay wasn't going to reach us any points so at the worst we were going to be fourth we could go back to E eighth ninth you know that's it's not just those 10 points it's the seven eight others that that we're going to miss out on every round so cumul cumulative it could be 50 or so points and so that's that's the gut punch is like damn it you know this this format rewards regular season Excellence but it it it certainly you know it allows you to have you know not a perfect day one day uh and still be able to race for a championship ship but you know now I'm kind of back there in the Middle where it's like you know I'm I'm very vulnerable in some spots Denny is there any sils to be taken in the fact that you found out and that this was addressed during the regular season rather than finding out after Darlington when the playoff grid is set and then then that hits yeah I don't think it really matters from my standpoint truthfully uh if they would have told me six months ago it felt the same because I I you know well maybe maybe a little less if it was a long time ago because I know well I can just win five more regular season races um we know that's not a reality now so uh there's two to win so you know there's an opportunity to get get some of that back uh but it it still hurts all the while it doesn't matter when your competitors were kind of bummed for you that were racing around the the for the for the uh you know in regular season championship and because it was not your fault do you take any solace in that at all and you know with to Bob's question about the Integrity this isn't on you no it's not you know but the the rules clear and and certainly you know I I think the rule probably was written at a time where most of the teams were building their own engines and so I think that uh it's a little bit different now with with how engines are through all manufacturers are a little bit different um but but listen they toota has been a partner of ours and and I make mistakes that cost them victories at times and and they made a mistake that that cost us here in the regular season so it's just that's just part of being partners and and I'd rather ride with them than anyone else so um um I'm very bummed about it certainly do I take solace and other drivers saying that sucks sure you know but um you know when you're all done racing you care about your legacy and you care about you know what drivers think of you from a talent perspective and certainly I feel like you know we're one of the teams that every week you're going to have to beat we're always one of the up top one of the favorites and you know it's because of the team that Chris has put together and I get get to drive it so um we're just going to try to get more winds and see whe it's all Stacks up by the end of the year would you like would you like to see more gray area in the rule book or do you like that it's black and white and yeah I mean I'm I'm certainly more in favor of you know just run the rules as they are certainly um you know I think that uh you know this this put a lot of people in some really you know hard positions for sure but um you know NASCAR did what was right and that was go by by the rule book should a race winning engine just be torn down after a win and and you know they used to give credits like you actually get it count as a second use even if it wasn't like this seems so this is part of the cost cutting that we've been doing in our sport this is this is a side effect cut cut costs yeah because you have to rebuild the engine more times than what you want to right so they want to run the engine you know three times or so so if you win on your first attempt with the engine you don't want to have to rebuild it you want to run it two extra times but if you tear it down it's got to get rebuilt again and that costs money so you ran this engine one other place do you know where that was at um I I ran it last year um and then I ran it uh at Bristol and Darlington okay