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By Lydia Mee
Sports Contributing Writer
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The recent Cook Out 400 race has ignited significant controversy within NASCAR, particularly around the role of spotters after Austin Dillon's spotter, Brandon Benesch, instructed Dillon to "wreck" other drivers to secure a win.
NASCAR star Denny Hamlin has been especially vocal, criticizing the role of spotters in the sport. On the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Hamlin expressed his frustration, saying, as quoted by 5Goats:
"I'm starting to be more and more in the boat of get rid of these stupid spotters, man.
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"[You] might not like it, and I know it'll never happen, and you can't because we have superspeedways and it's a safety thing. But they've got to shut the f*** up, man. They do, they're not driving the car."
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In response to the incident, NASCAR has been firm, handing a three-race suspension to Dillon's spotter, Benesch, for behavior deemed detrimental to the standards of racing. Dillon's win was also ruled ineligible for playoff qualification.
Discussing the implications of such actions, Hamlin, on the Actions Detrimental podcast, criticized the method Dillon's team chose to pursue victory.
"It's just, it's interesting that they believe that that's like a legitimate way to win. You were on your way to a legitimate win, but then you got beat and you have to live with getting beat on that restart. You didn't do a good enough job that the 22 did.
"And you have to take that L and say, 'Damnit, if I had to do it all over again I would have got a better restart and I would have beat the 22. But I didn't, and the 22 earned the right to win that race via his restart.' But it took zero talent to wipe someone out and then wipe someone else out."
NASCAR's enforcement of the rules has attracted support, with officials stating the spotter's role as a stabilizer, not an instigator. NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer explained:
"If you look at at the crew chief and you look at the spotter, and view them as calming voices in the driver's ear, in this case, we just felt like we've all listened to the audio. We know exactly what was said. We just felt like that that's not what we need spotters doing. That's not what we need (from a) crew chief sitting on the box.
"They're a calming voice to what the situation is in front of them, and they're supposed to be spotting for the race, not making comments like were made, as we all know."
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