Denny Hamlin and the number 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Team have been hit with a pricey penalty after Toyota tore down an engine before it could be inspected by NASCAR following Hamlin's victory at Bristol Motor Speedway way back in March this illegal move will be costly for Denny Hamlin could Denny Hamlin be caught up in a cheating scandal NASCAR stated that the L2 level penalty was imposed for failing to fulfill NASCAR's Engine Seal regulations adding that Toyota reported the problem each race-winning engine must be inspected by NASCAR once the race team determines that it's life cycle is complete in this instance prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection Toyota Racing development disassembled and rebuilt the number 11's Bristol winning race engine per the NASCAR rule book this violation results in an L2 penalty to the race team and Driver Toyota Racing development self-reported this violation the series shattering decision means Hamlin will lose 75 driver and owner points moving him from third to sixth place in the regular season standings the loss of 10 playoff points will also be deducted from his total of 21 reducing it to 11 a race Victory is worth five playoff points the team was also fined $100,000 following the announcement of the penalties Toyota Racing issued a statement admitting that they had made a mistake as the engine builder for our partner Nascar Cup Series teams TRD is solely responsible for the handling and disposition of all our engines pre and post race despite procedures being in place 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 rule book 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 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 coach Gibbs the entire jgr organization NASCAR and our fans Denny Hamlin won three races this season so he doesn't have to worry about the worst component of his sentence had Bristol been his sole victory of the Season he may have missed the playoffs the winning engine in question was the one used at Bristol his playoff eligibility from the Bristol Triumph is no longer valid so good news he has two more wins and a ton of points overall so he wasn't in danger Hamlin was going to make the nas car playoffs one way or another still it is a punishment with several implications both visible and unexpected especially the playoff points for what it's worth Toyota Racing development accepted full responsibility for the blunder NASCAR did not tear down the engine provided by Toyota they are ultimately responsible however jgr and Hamlin bear the financial burden on social media Bob pess of Fox Sports and Jeff Gluk of the athletic explained why an appeal from Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing is is not taking place no reason to appeal pockrass commented on X in response to a fan the reason the timing is so late is that TRD must have just realized that the winning engine from Bristol was mistakenly rebuilt instead of being inspected by NASCAR and told NASCAR about it glook also commented to a fan on X who said the penalty changed Hamlin season seems pointless this is about as black and white as it gets Gluk wrote winning engines must be submitted for inspection before being torn down this one wasn't automatic penalty bad break for Hamlin jgr because of Toyota's error but that's the rule as Bob pis of Fox Sports points out this is a severe penalty Denny Hamlin and his crew will bear a significant financial burden this penalty will knock Hamlin out of the regular season title Chase he was 28 points behind of leader Tyler reick Hamlin now drops from third to sixth in overall points 786 to 71 Denny Hamlin will also fall from third to sixth in playoff points he has dropped from 21 to 11 playoff points putting him behind Team Pensky colleagues Ryan blay and Austin syri the problem emerged when TRD self-reported the infringement Joe Gibbs Racing did not create the error but they will be punished Nascar has a very clear guideline about this it's a major setback to his championship chances if he had came back and won the regular season Championship he would have receiv received 15 additional playoff points instead it's a 25-point swing with him dropping 10 points it's safe to say the news that Denny Hamlin was punished today for failing an engine check surprised the NASCAR world even Dale nhart Junior is stunned by the news when NASCAR teams are discovered cheating or breaching the regulations there is typically a valid cause looking for every tenth and digit of horsepower that you can generate then there are instances where things slip between the gaps Dale Jr believes Denny Hamlin's engine penalty was the consequence of a mistake not attempting to obtain an edge wild happened in March and at Bristol where motor doesn't really matter gives me confidence there was no real intention also considering what was going on with Tire management during the race big big disappointment for DH and crew nhart wrote on x.com comma formerly known as Twitter if you're going to trick the engine you ain't risking it at Bristol the Hall of Famer added in a second post Dale nhart Jr understands what he's talking about particularly in Bristol if he claims it makes no sense to meddle with the engine in Bristol I trust him the fact that TRD self-reported the breach suggests it was not malicious still Denny Hamlin did not want 75 points and 10 playoff points taken away he was in the thick of a regular season title race and now he's Out Of Reach Denny Hamlin must pay for TD's mistake in reusing a race-winning engine without NASCAR inspection Toyota TRD as Joe Gibbs racings engine vendor is ultimately responsible for the blunder but it doesn't matter jgr utilized the engine hence they incur an automatic l L2 penalty in addition to 75 driver and owner points and 10 playoff points crew chief Chris gabart is fined $1,000 this penalty will knock Hamlin out of the regular season title Chase he was 28 points behind of leader Tyler reic Hamlin now drops from third to sixth in overall points 786 to 711 Denny Hamlin will also fall from third to sixth in playoff points he has dropped from 21 to 11 playoff points putting him behind team Pensky colleagues Ryan blay and Austin cnri so what happened exactly Denny Hamlin broke the following regulation for which TRD accepted responsibility all race winning engines will be long block sealed by NASCAR and must be completely inspected by NASCAR before the engine may be disassembled by the team if the team chooses to use the long block sealed race winning engine again before being inspected the engine must be used in the same vehicle number the next time it is used as said earlier NASA Nar also issued a statement detailing the infringement each race-winning engine must be inspected by NASCAR once the race team determines that its lifecycle is complete the statement added in this instance prior to presenting the engine to NASCAR for inspection Toyota Racing development disassembled and rebuilt the number 11's Bristol winning race engine per the NASCAR rule book this violation results in an L2 penalty to the race team and Driver Toyota Racing development self-reported this violation Denny Hamlin's team was caught off guard by the development and TRD accepted full responsibility for the error fortunately it will not jeopardize Denny Hamlin his playoff spot however it might cost him a regular season championship and make his playoff chances much more difficult the broader implications for the team will likely include a re-evaluation of procedures and perhaps more rigorous internal checks to prevent such costly errors in the future as the NASCAR season progresses much attention will be on how Hamlin and his team rebound from this setback and manag team morale we will now maybe unsurprisingly be watching for Hamlin's response particularly in light of his outspoken nature and previous criticisms of the NASCAR penalty system Denny Hamlin is still chasing that illustrious first championship and this penalty surely isn't helping out what do you think did they do it by accident or on purpose and will this also mean that Denny won't have a shot at winning the title at the end of the year let me know your thoughts in the comments down below you