Denny Hamlin torn on NASCAR's major wreck dilemma

NASCAR star Denny Hamlin admits he is torn on how to handle intentional wrecks in the sport.

Hamlin made the comments in light of another controversial weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, where two incidents in particular caught the attention.

Firstly, on lap 32, Zane Smith got into the back of Carson Hocevar's No. 77 Chevrolet into turn two, spinning him around and resulting in both cars wrecking into the wall.

Then, later in the race, Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill got tangled up, with the latter's team owner adamant that it was payback for a previous wreck that had happened a fortnight earlier at San Diego.

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Denny Hamlin on NASCAR wrecks

Speaking on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin analyzed both incidents and felt the drivers were self-policing, which, as it turns out, he has totally mixed feelings about.

“I'm torn on these wrecks,” Hamlin explained. “Because do I think that it's cool that someone goes and just wipes someone out? No. But I'm also a very firm fan of self-policing.

“I think that that has to be a thing in the sport because if you can't punch someone in the face without getting a fine. They always keep you separated; security's in there, you’ve got the teams getting involved. If you can't handle it off the race track, which I'm not really in favour of that because there are other people, you gotta let people self-police on the racetrack.

“And this is how you self-police, is that you let someone know, ‘You f**k with me and you’re gonna get it, you’re gonna get it, and so just think about that before you f**k with me, or you wreck me, or you run into me.’”

Hamlin: NASCAR has historically been self-policing sport

“This is what NASCAR racing has been for quite some time, is this self-policing sport, and it just got in a weird spot over the last like five to six to seven years,” Hamlin continued.

“Then we started talking about, well, these are deliberate wrecks, these are intentional wrecks, and we have to penalize that.

“And then there's the other half of me, the other birdie that’s like, ‘Yeah, that's an intentional wreck; you shouldn't be able to do that, that’s wrong.’

“So I don't know which one I like. I don't know if I like the self-policing birdie or I like the ‘that's an intentional wreck.’”

NASCAR will decide early this week if either incident warrants any sort of punishment, with the post-event penalty report usually dropping midweek.

As yet, nothing has been confirmed, but it's certainly something to keep an eye out for in the coming days.