At one point during Sunday's Jack Link's 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin was frustrated with teammate Christopher Bell for not making a pit stop under caution, which would have put Hamlin ahead of all of the lead lap cars on the race track.
Hamlin had been off the lead lap since being hit with a pit road speeding penalty earlier in the race, after having led 28 early laps of the 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval.
On paper, this would have allowed Hamlin to take the wave around. However, NASCAR rules state that the No. 11 Toyota would not have been eligible for the wave around anyway.
On the Hamlin deal earlier … Rule is you can’t gave wave around after pit road is closed. pic.twitter.com/T8k2CiuLnw
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 26, 2026
Zane Smith gifted a lap back by accident
Yet that same wave around was given to Front Row Motorsports' Zane Smith when it should not have been, and Smith went on to finish in a season-best fifth place.
*meant to say Smith (38, not the 34)
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 27, 2026
While NASCAR was able to correct the results themselves, amid the inevitable scoring chaos that tends to happen on superspeedways when there are multiple wrecks unfolding at the same time coming to the checkered flag, this mistake was simply uncorrectable.
NASCAR has no way of retroactively penalizing Smith after they were the ones that made the mistake of allowing the driver of the No. 38 Ford to take the wave around to begin with, when the rules state that he should not have been eligible for it.
there won't be any change postrace to the scoring because of it. no real way to correct it. https://t.co/Wnx3vIydwG
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 26, 2026
Smith, who also collected a stage point with his 10th place finish in the race's second stage, scored an additional extra point for running the race's fastest lap. After starting the afternoon 22nd in the point standings, he is now in a 20th place tie with Kaulig Racing's A.J. Allmendinger, 43 points below the "Chase" playoff cut line.
His fifth place finish was his first top five finish since his third place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in September, and it was the fourth of his career.
Worth noting, Hamlin was able to get back on the lead lap himself later on, and he salvaged a 15th place finish out of an otherwise miserable afternoon.
The next race on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Wurth 400, which is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from Texas Motor Speedway beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 3. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!
Add us as a preferred source on Google