Denny Hamlin is making a serious offer to the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ overnight sensation Josh Williams.
If you haven’t heard of Williams before Saturday, that’s fine. He’s never won an Xfinity race, and he’s only been racing sporadically in the series since 2016. But he made his name known throughout the motorsports world at Atlanta, when Williams parked his vehicle on the start/finish line and walked across the infield to pit road while waving at fans.
The decision to cause a scene came in defiance of a radio communication from NASCAR which called for Williams to return to the garage for “extending the caution,” after debris came off his car.
After becoming the Xfinity Series’ newest outlaw, Williams will certainly be punished for the ordeal, likely in the form of a major fine. However, Hamlin is on his side. Check out their interaction on Twitter, where Hamlin put it in black and white.
“I’ll pay your fine,” responded Hamlin, to the photo of Williams’ beaten-down vehicle.
Moreover, Williams had to meet with NASCAR after the situation, of course. Speaking with the media, he stated his reasoning was he disagreed with NASCAR’s ruling to send him to the garage.
“We all work really hard and to only run ‘X’ amount of laps and then to have something like a piece of Bear Bond and put us out of the race, it’s really frustrating,” Williams said after his meeting with series officials, via NASCAR. “Small team. We work really hard. We’ve got to make our sponsors happy, right? It doesn’t do any good sitting in the garage.
“It is what it is. We’ll learn from it and move on.”
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Alas, Josh Williams is now ready to put the entire situation behind him, and get back to racing.
“It’s up to them. It’s their sandbox and we play in it and I enjoy the Xfinity Series,” Williams added, regarding a potential suspension. “I’ve got respect for (Managing Series Director) Wayne (Auton) and everybody, so we’ll just move on and go on to the next one.”
Nevertheless, Josh Williams will for sure have a newfound popularity moving forward, even if he claims he didn’t do it to make a scene.
“There wasn’t one person sitting in their seats,” Williams said. “I didn’t do it (Saturday) to be spiteful or to make a huge scene … I wanted to voice my opinion that I felt (the decision) wasn’t right, but it’s in the rule book.”
Josh Williams, NASCAR’s newest outlaw. Denny Hamlin was impressed, and he may become the most popular Xfinity Series driver in due time.