Hamlin comments on driver council’s reaction to Stewart fine

Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin was made available to the media at Richmond International Raceway Friday afternoon.

Q: Why did the driver's council make the statement supporting Tony Stewart's comments?
Hamlin: "I think it kind of shows a unity amongst us. It really has nothing to do with lug nuts or no lug nuts or anything like that, it's more so the drivers believing that they have a right to express their opinion especially when asked in an interview. We try to do our best to give honest answers and sometimes those aren't always the best thing. I know at times I've been very guilty of being too honest at times or too opinionated at times and it costs you a nickel or two. We just think that there should be a little bit of leniency there for someone that knows a lot about our sport and has been in our sport a long time. He gave his opinion and especially when it's something on safety too. I think it's pretty important. As far as what we believe, it's all said in the statement. Everything I'm telling you here is my opinion and my opinion only."

Q: Where is the line when it comes to comments from drivers?
Hamlin: "I don't know where the line is, I don't know if there is a line – obviously there is a line, but obviously we just believe that you should be able to express your opinion as long as you're not just totally trashing the sport itself or anything like that. I think every situation is different, but we'll just move forward from it."

Q: How has the driver's council evolved and what is the direction of the council overall?
Hamlin: "I think that the driver's interests and the owner's interests is 95 percent aligned most of the time. There's some things that we feel like we would like to see changed, sometimes it doesn't align with what NASCAR thinks or what the teams think, but I think that this was a pretty black and white thing from a driver's perspective to have a guy that's coming back and is in the middle of an interview and gets asked a question and he responds to the question and gets fined for it. That to us was a moment and I think for us it just shows solidarity that we're all in this together as the drivers and we want to have one voice because that one voice is obviously a little louder and clearer to NASCAR when we go into meetings talking about where it's going to head from competition to safety and amongst other things. I think that its grown a lot over the last year and our communication as drivers, the barriers that we have, those have been broken down tremendously over the last year to two. Our meetings with NASCAR have changed the sport and will continue to change the sport for many years. Mostly it's all positive, every now and then we feel like we should show solidarity to a guy whose done a lot for the sport and we still don't want to be so politically correct all the time and have to filter our thoughts and think about it because we have sponsors on our cars or owners we have to answer to or NASCAR, sometimes you just want to say what you feel and we feel like you should be able to do that at times."

Q: How did the discussion come about to pay Tony Stewart's fine?
Hamlin: "I think it's more of a council thing. Obviously we chat on a daily basis about issues within our sport or things we'd like to work on or change or stay the same. When Tony (Stewart) informed us of the fine, we didn't agree with it and no one agreed with it and we thought there was something we should do about it. This was a way for us to send a message back to NASCAR, not that we were trying to send any specific message that we just believe that we should have the right to speak our opinion. I don't know whether everyone agrees with the opinion he had or not, but it doesn't matter. It's what he was asked so he answered the question. I think that was the biggest thing for us. We should have the right to speak our opinion."

Q: Have you heard from the series about the statement yet?
Hamlin: "Nothing from the series at all, but I'm sure we'll all hear something at some point." Toyota Racing