Denny Hamlin reacts to Marco Andretti losing rear axle at COTA: ‘Holy cow’

Denny Hamlin couldn’t believe what he saw when Marco Andretti lost his rear axle at COTA. Heck, he even said there shouldn’t be a penalty for something like because his truck nearly flipped over entering a corner.

The good news for Andretti is he won’t face any penalties, per NBC Sports’ Dustin Long. In one of the more bizarre incidents on a track this season, Andretti lost both wheels off the rear of his vehicle when the entire axle snapped off.

Hamlin honestly couldn’t believe what he saw.

“Holy cow,” Hamlin said on his podcast. “I mean, you know, I’m just in the bus and I’m watching this and I’m yelling like, look at this …You won’t (expletive) believe this. Look at this, the whole back of his truck fell out … Somebody broke it down where like, it looks like a weld came loose somewhere in the back. It could be from wheel hopping. It could be from hitting curbs too hard or anything like that. So it’s tough to say and tough to speculate, but holy cow. We’ve never seen that before.” 

Since there’s a question of a penalty, even though Andretti won’t face any, Hamlin argued there shouldn’t be any regardless.

“I don’t think there should be a penalty for sure,” Hamlin said. “He nearly turned over upside down. It just looks worse is that he was on this side of the track by himself, like there was nobody within a mile of them and this truck just nearly flips over entering our corner. Oh my gosh, that was crazy … That was a big wheel hop for sure.”

The incident in question occurred when Andretti spun in Turn 11, just before leader Corey Heim was about to take the white flag. A red flag was waived, allowing safety crews to come in and remove the rear end housing that had snapped off of Andretti’s vehicle.

The incident ended Andretti’s day on the track, as safety crews worked to clean up the area. A lot of fluid was put down on the track as the axle dislodged itself.

The red flag lasted four minutes and 30 seconds.

When the race resumed, despite drivers like Taylor Gray, Ty Majeski, Nick Sanchez, Ross Chastain, and Connor Zilisch getting a temporary new lease on life, Heim was able to close things out. He went on to win the race and closed out a dominant performance in which he led 30 laps.

Andretti is racing for Roper Racing in the NASCAR Truck Series.