DENNY HAMLIN SELLING #FREEMATT SHIRTS IN SUPPORT OF MATT KENSETH

MERCHANDISE TO BENEFIT CHILDREN’S CHARITY

Always one of the most opinionated drivers in the garage, it came to no surprise that Denny Hamlin has been one of the more vocal critics of NASCAR’s decision to suspend Matt Kenseth for two races after intentionally crashing Joey Logano last weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin is also a Kenseth teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing and immediately responded to the suspension by using the hashtag #FreeMatt on Twitter and wearing t-shirts featuring the slogan and a mugshot of the 2003 Sprint Cup Series champion.

Now Hamlin is selling the shirt with all proceeds going to the Denny Hamlin Foundation, which raises awareness and money for children stricken with cystic fibrosis.

Hamlin has declared himself a proponent of the driver’s code this weekend — an unwritten rule in NASCAR between competitors that basically calls for a self-policing garage and justifiable retaliation. Hamlin, who has also had high-profile run-ins with Logano in the past, has stated that Kenseth was just enforcing the code when he retaliated against Logano following a costly crash last month at Kansas Speedway.

“There’s an unspoken driver code,” Hamlin said. “We don’t talk about this a lot. A lot of fans don’t understand what the driver code is, but any driver that has been doing this long enough understands what the driver code is. I feel like the driver code that’s been established since racing began, 100 years ago, that driver code is more compromised now than ever.

“NASCAR said in years past — they said this year — that they like the drivers to police themselves. Matt was policing the driver’s code, in my opinion.”

Fans can purchase the shirts here.