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Denny Hamlin on tire violators: 'You should be gone forever'

Joe Gibbs Racing driver says there is no room for that level of cheating - if it exists

Jeff Gluck
USA TODAY Sports
Denny Hamlin is bullish about what should happen to teams that mess with tires.

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Denny Hamlin has a suggestion of what should happen to someone who messes with tires: A lifetime ban from NASCAR.

"If it's out there and they know about it, you should be gone forever," he said Friday. "I mean, that's a major, major, major thing. This isn't like the old rodeo days of being able to go out there and run a big motor or soak the tires. This is a professional sport and when people alter tires that's a big, big deal. Definitely no room for it in the sport, that's for sure."

Tires are a hot topic this weekend because the rumors of some teams drilling small holes in the tires to slowly leak air during a run have come to the forefront.

Both four-time champion Jeff Gordon and Hamlin said they believe the tire tampering is taking place, and high-profile crew chiefs Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson also spoke openly about the subject Friday.

NASCAR met with crew chiefs earlier in the day and told them there would be a severe penalty for anyone caught tampering with tires. But Hamlin said if someone is caught, the penalty should be "a permanent vacation."

"This (rumor) has been going on for years and years — it's just ramped up again here lately," Hamlin said. "People can only say something about you so much before it's actually reality. And it's reality. Things like this don't keep getting brought up and said if it's not actually happening."

Hamlin acknowledged NASCAR would have a tough time figuring out whether any leak is natural or induced by drilling.

Officials confiscated tires from reigning Cup champion Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman last week, then sent them to an independent laboratory for further investigation. The results have yet to come back.

Harvick crew chief Rodney Childers told USA TODAY Sports the Stewart-Haas Racing team had done nothing wrong, but he suspected other teams were trying to find excuses for why the No. 4 Chevrolet was so fast week in and week out. Harvick has finished first or second in the past eight races.

NASCAR has said the confiscated tires -- which they've taken for two weeks in a row -- is part of a normal audit process.

"They'll figure out a way (to find an infraction), and whether it will be with someone else taking a look at the tires to try to figure it out, they'll find it," Hamlin said. "And when they do, that person when they feel NASCAR getting hot on them, they're going to stop doing it and that's maybe when you'll see some performance differences. You never know."

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck

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