How does a NASCAR racing driver celebrate a victory? With a ridiculously massive burnout, of course.
After winning the race at Watkins Glen, Denny Hamlin took his monumentally-powered Camry for a spin, in a “bad winner” kind of way. You know, the type that yells “in your face” after emerging victorious.
Well, he wasn’t the first who couldn’t contain his excitement throughout the sport’s history, but he could be the last, as NASCAR officials declared themselves unhappy with “excessive celebrations”:
“It’s something that’s been out there that we are trying to avoid yet balance the celebration. I think (we will see something) in the very near future, and this isn’t putting it all on the 11 car, this is something we’ve talked about, it’s a trend we don’t like to see”, said Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President, and Chief Racing Development.
In fact, according to the official site, NASCAR may soon require curtailing their celebratory burnouts to avoid excess damage to the winning vehicles before the post-race inspection process.
Incidents similar to Hamlin’s celebration have raised concerns that teams were intentionally damaging their entries in an effort to keep officials from uncovering possible rules violations during post-race inspections.
O’Donnell said that officials want to continue to allow winning drivers to enjoy the feat, but without creating unnecessary damage to the car:
“We want to see a celebration and we think that drivers can celebrate without doing that.”