NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin offered to pay any potential fines doled out to Xfinity Series driver Josh Williams after NASCAR disqualified him and he parked his car on the start/finish line during the Raptor King of Tough 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday.
Williams was involved in early crash during the race where he suffered some significant front end damage when Kyle Weatherman spun out.
Williams would attempt to make repairs to the car, but due to the low temperatures the BearBond tape was flying off the car as he left his pit box and later when he returned to the track.
Williams would then be informed by race control that he was disqualified from the race for extending the caution due to the debris from his vehicle. He would be ordered to park his car in the garage.
The driver complied by parking his car at the start/finish line and then walked back to his pit box giving fans the peace sign and waving at them along the way.
After making his way back to his pit box, Williams unloaded on NASCAR officials saying, “I don’t care. What’s he going to do? Fine me? Can’t afford to pay it.”
Williams would later be called to the NASCAR hauler to meet with officials following the conclusion of the race. His car was even parked beside the NASCAR hauler as well.
The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi reported, “To the surprise of no one, Josh Williams has been called to the NASCAR hauler to meet with official post race.”
In a subsequent tweet he added, “Josh Williams’ car is now parked alongside the NASCAR hauler.”
After his conversation with NASCAR officials, Williams told the press, “NASCAR made a decision and I didn’t agree with it at the time. It’s in the rulebook, I guess, so it’s just part of it.”
When asked if he would do it again, he replied, “I don’t think so. Hopefully, we’re not put in that situation again, but things happen and it is what it is.”
As for what NASCAR told him, Williams said, “They’re still going to make a decision. I’m sure you’ll hear something Tuesday.”
As for what he was thinking when he parked the car and walked across the infield to the pit box, Williams said, “We all work really hard, right? And only run x amount of laps and then have something like a piece of BearBond fall off and put us out pf the race — it’s really frustrating, small team, we work really hard and we got to make our sponsors happy, right? It doesn’t do any good sitting in the garage, but it is what it is. We’ll learn from it and move on.”
Williams went on to relay what he told NASCAR, “Just told them I was a little bit frustrated, but it’s in the rulebook.”
When asked about NASCAR’s decision and if he was surprised on why they parked him, he responded, “I was shocked about how quick it was. We did lose a piece of BearBond. It’s cold and the stuff is hard to stick. I mean what do you do?”
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Williams would also post a picture of his car next to the NASCAR hauler and captioned it “DNF,” which is short for did not finish.
In response to this photo, Hamlin replied, “I’ll pay your fine.”
Williams replied by attempting to leverage an appearance on Hamlin’s podcast, Actions Detrimental.
He tweeted, “Thanks man….. I’m free if ya need a new podcast guest.”
While it’s unclear if he will join Hamlin on Actions Detrimental, Williams will appear on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, also part of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Dirty Mo Media.
What do you make of Hamlin offering to pay any potential fine that NASCAR doles out to Williams? What do you make of Williams parking his car at the start/finish line?