NASCAR: No easy fix for plate racing - Hamlin

After several cars went airborne in Sunday's race at Talladega, the subject of safety in restrictor-plate racing was raised again on Monday. But Denny Hamlin doesn't know that there's a good answer.

"There's only two fixes," he told ESPN at an appearance at a Boys & Girls Club in Concord, North Carolina, on Monday. "You have to slow us way down, like 50mph, or you're gonna have to let us run 250 there and get spread out. That to me is the only way you're gonna avoid these mass wrecks. The reason we're all wrecking in the horrific fashion that we're wrecking is because when someone gets turned sideways, there's someone else right there to lift them up. I think the 20 car actually got air without being assisted, but most of those other ones, they're getting driven up in the air, and as long as there are 20 cars in a one-second pack, it's going to happen.

"We talk about this every two to three restrictor-plate races and there's just no fix because we haven't done it yet. We don't know; the only thing you can do from my standpoint in the ignorance that I have is that you have to slow us way down or speed us way up. We have to get spread apart; that's the only way you're not going to have these crazy crashes."

Several drivers said after the race that the racing was simply "Talladega," including race winner Brad Keselowski, who commented that "the way I see it, there are still people paying to sit in the stands, sponsors still on the cars and drivers still willing to get in them."

"To me, that sounds self-policing and there's enough interest to keep going, so we'll keep going," he added.

Hamlin said Monday that safety concerns still exist, pointing to the wreck that sent Danica Patrick hard into the inside wall and Matt Kenseth's car into the air and into the wall. Hamlin said the angle and location of Patrick's wreck looked similar to the Xfinity Series crash at Daytona that broke Kyle Busch's leg and foot.

"That did not look good at all, and the foot compartment, luckily for her, she was short, had some extra room there," Hamlin said.

Amid recent discussions on safety – mostly centering on criticism of a lug nut policy that was eventually changed – NASCAR chairman Brian France attended part of the Sprint Cup Drivers Council meeting for the first time on Friday.

Hamlin, a member of the council, told ESPN he would like to have council meetings "more often than less," but as topics arise "that's when [we] decide to meet and talk about things.

But he stressed that NASCAR is aware of these safety issues and has address "most of [the drivers'] issues, and this will be no exception."