Denny Hamlin has once again criticized NASCAR's officiating after a controversial finish to the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver took issue with NASCAR's explanation of several last-lap incidents involving Kyle Larson, Austin Hill, Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar and Todd Gilliland.

Larson claimed victory at Talladega after charging through the field on the final lap, but his decisive move sparked debate over whether his left-side tires had crossed below the double-yellow line. NASCAR reviewed the finish and ruled that Larson had stayed on the line, allowing the result to stand.

"The tire has to go fully below the yellow line. So if there is even a half an inch that remains on that yellow line, we're not going to call a penalty. So in our judgment, we felt that was pretty clear. That's kind of where the conversation ends as far as NASCAR goes. It's 'do we feel that, were there tires below the yellow line? No? OK. That's it,'" NASCAR's Mike Forde said on Hauler Talk.

Hill was judged to have crossed below the line before Larson forced him down there, gaining an advantage. However, NASCAR did not penalize him because he ultimately finished as the last car on the lead lap, the same position he would have held if he had been black-flagged. Forde said officials would "probably" have penalized Hill had he gone on to win the race, but they decided against intervening because a penalty would not have changed his finishing position.

Chastain and Hocevar also avoided penalties after officials determined Gilliland had forced them below the line. However, Forde acknowledged that Gilliland's incident prompted more discussion among officials than the other incidents.

"In the moment, I think we said it was kind of inconclusive of whether he came down to block them, to keep them from passing the 34, so we made that a no call. I think that was the closest one. There was some discussion of 'man, maybe that's one where we should've potentially made a call there.' We chose not to in the moment, but there was more discussion around that one than any of the other ones that we made," Forde said.

The Athletic's Jeff Gluck shared his takeaways from NASCAR's explanation, prompting Hamlin to question the role of intent in the decision not to penalize Gilliland.

Responding to Gluck on X, Hamlin wrote: "Jeff, I'm dying to know. Since when does 'intent' matter? I specifically remember NSC saying intent doesn't matter in these situations. Well, until now."

"My goodness. This is horrible officiating or horrible comms. I think it might be both," Hamlin added in another response to Gluck's post.

Hamlin had previously discussed the finish on his Actions Detrimental podcast, defending Larson's win while questioning NASCAR's consistency. He argued that Larson had stayed on the double-yellow line but believed Hill had crossed it during an earlier move in Turn 2.