Denny Hamlin: 'I'm not going to pay the fine'

Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

LAS VEGAS — A fired-up Denny Hamlin vowed not to pay his fine for criticizing the quality of NASCAR's Phoenix race last week and said he will no longer speak about any competition-related issues.

Hamlin was fined $25,000 on Thursday for saying the Gen 6 cars did not race as well as the Gen 5 cars. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said it was an opinion — and "it's not even a bad one!"

A few hours later, Hamlin wasn't backing down. In fact, he added context after some retrospection and perhaps introspection.

He tweeted that although he would go through the appeals process, "I believe I was severely disrespected by NASCAR by getting fined. I believe that the simple fact of us not even having a conversation about this issue before I was hit with a fine has something to say about our relationship."

Hamlin, who was fined in 2010 for tweets suggesting NASCAR issued phantom cautions, also said he had been careful about what he said to the news media since and "I feel as if today NASCAR lost one of its biggest supporters vocally of where our sport is headed. So in the end there are no winners."

The complete twitter statement at his account @dennyhamlin:

The short of the long of it is I believe I was severely disrespected by NASCAR by getting fined. I believe that the simple fact of us not even having a conversation about this issue before I was hit with a fine has something to say about our relationship. What I said was 1 sentence taken completely out of context. Most drivers will tell you that we constantly have our AND nascars best interest in mind when speaking. On the other hand I am a person that worked very hard from the BOTTOM to get where I am today and someone telling me that I can give my 100 percent honest opinion really bothers me. Since being fined in 2010 I have been a lot more careful about what I say to media and I felt this past weekend felt completely in my rights to give a assessment of the question asked. I feel as if today NASCAR lost one of its biggest supporters vocally of where our sport is headed. So in the end there are no winners. I said today I would not pay the fine. I stand by that and will go through the process of appealing. Trust me, this is not about the money.. It's much deeper. I will now shift my focus on giving FedEx and my team what they deserve this weekend, a win.

The comments this time occurred when Hamlin compared the racing with Sprint Cup's new Generation 6 cars to the much-maligned previous model, saying in part the Gen 6 car "did not race as good as our Generation 5 cars."

"This is the most upset and angry I've been in a long, long time about anything that relates to NASCAR," Hamlin said Thursday after a Gen 6 test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "… The truth is what the truth is. I don't believe in this (fine), I'm never going to believe in this. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to pay the fine. If they suspend me, they suspend me. I don't care at this point."

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said Hamlin has an unspecified amount of time to write his payment check.

"The fines are supposed to be paid as soon as possible, but we're not in any of those windows yet where it seems to be a problem," Pemberton said. Hamlin can continue to compete during an appeal.

After Phoenix, Hamlin said he didn't want to be a "Denny Downer" but "I just didn't pass that many cars today," he said afterward. "That's the realistic fact of it."

"This is more like what the Generation 5 was at the beginning," he said then. "The teams hadn't figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single-file and you cannot get around the guy in front of you. You would have placed me in 20th place with 30 (laps) to go, I would have stayed there — I wouldn't have moved up. It's just one of those things where track position is everything."

Pemberton said Thursday drivers are given latitude with their comments about NASCAR, but said "you can't slam your racing, you can't slam your product" because it crosses a line. NASCAR did not warn drivers about watching their comments before this season, but did so several years ago.

"Constructive criticism is one thing, but there are different statements people make that are damaging," he said. "We won't tolerate those types of things."

Hamlin said he had to be careful in order not to "make things worse than they already are."

"This was something that was absolutely nothing and got blown into something, and it's just going to be worse for (NASCAR)," he said. "Let them deal with it."

Hamlin called himself a "pretty good spokesman" for the sport and had been positive in the past during negative situations. He said NASCAR lost him in that regard after the fine.

"I'm not going to say anything for the rest of the year as long as it relates to competition," he said. "You can ask how my daughter is and talk to me after wins, but as long as it relates to competition, I'm out."

Follow Jeff Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck