Joe Gibbs addressed Denny Hamlin’s controversial win in Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway during a Tuesday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Gibbs, the owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, didn’t cast judgement on his star driver after he appeared to make contact with Kyle Larson while executing a pass with seven laps remaining. He added he hopes drivers police issues on the race track themselves, while he aims to stay on the sidelines.
“There is so much that happens at the end of these races,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s a battle that you can imagine that each time, each driver, each crew chief — everybody is saying… you know, it’s my sponsor, it’s my chance to win, I’ve worked so hard for this week in preparation, and I’ve gone through all this. I’ve raced till the end of this race, and there’s a determination about that where guys just — they go after it.
“There’s a lot that can happen, and sometimes it doesn’t go the way we want it to. Each driver I think that’s spent years driving these race cars has had it happen to them. I think back in Denny’s case — at Indy in 2021, leading [and] gets knocked out of the way on the last lap. Fall of 2021 at Martinsville. 2019 at Loudon. I mean, there’s different times in there where it’s happened to Denny.
“… The drivers know everything about what happened; I don’t. So to be truthful, I normally just kind of stay out of it. That’s been my approach for 31 years. I let them talk about it, and you would hope that they do talk about it, and they go to each other after the race or at some point and kinda work it out between them. That’s kinda where I’ve always been with it.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. breaks down Denny Hamlin’s ‘dirty’ move on Kyle Larson
Hamlin, meanwhile, 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.”
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."
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