Denny Hamlin secured his 50th NASCAR Cup Series victory during Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway after making an aggressive move past Kyle Larson with seven laps remaining in the race.
The move, in which Hamlin appeared to make contact with Larson who finished 20th, resulted in the sold-out crowd booing him as he took the checkered flag. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was in the NBC Sports booth during the on-track incident, called Hamlin’s pass a “dirty move” while speaking on “ The Dale Jr. Download” Monday.
“Denny — it was exactly like with the No. 1 car — Ross Chastain last year,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Denny gets position in the middle of the corner. Larson missed the corner, didn’t get through the corner as well. Denny gets wheel-to-wheel mid corner. He makes a decision in that moment to throttle up and drive up the race track and door the hell out of the No. 5. There’s contact, he’s coming up the track.
“I agree that it was a dirty move to door him. To throttle up and door him, but it’s for the win. It’s not how you would expect friends to race friends. But maybe that friendship which I’ve seen this and I’ve been apart of this on the race track. When you got buddies, you use them up. Oh, yeah. Because you know, you’re like, ‘Hey, man, I know this guy. I know he is not gonna do anything, I know… I know it.’
“You know, I can I know, I feel like I can take advantage of this situation and get out of the car and go, ‘Hey, bud. Come on, man. You know, we just racing.’ Yeah, I’ve seen it before from other drivers that were friends and I’ve been in that situation with other drivers that were friends.”
Denny Hamlin insists he didn’t make contact with Kyle Larson, breaks down restart that led to incident
While Earnhardt Jr. said there was clearly contact, Hamlin felt differently. He reiterated on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast Monday that he did not make contact with Larson, one of his best friends on the race track.
“I still contest we did not touch,” Hamlin said. “I know it looks like it, but there’s not a ding on the car, not a scratch nowhere on the right side. So from where I was sitting on the left, I mean, I could not, if it was contact, I certainly didn’t feel it. It was so small that I certainly didn’t feel it in the car. I saw the flaps go up, which happens whenever you get some low pressure. I guess there’s high pressure underneath the hood, which happens when you do get close to each other.”
Larson later responded on his “High Limit Room” podcast, and suffice to say, the 2021 Cup Series champion saw it differently than Hamlin.
“He did hit me,” Larson said. “I know he says he didn’t, but the replays clearly show he makes contact with me. And then my car shoots up the racetrack.”
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