Denny Hamlin fires back at Kyle Busch calling Dale Earnhardt Jr. a ‘warm body’ as Xfinity crew chief

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added Xfinity Series crew chief winner to his extensive NASCAR resume after Connor Zilisch‘s victory in Saturday’s race at Pocono Raceway. Earnhardt filled in atop the pit box for Mardy Lindley, who was serving a one-race suspension.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding Earnhardt playing the role of crew chief for Zilisch. Kyle Busch, however, saw it much differently.

“It’s all publicity, but spin it how you want it,” Busch told Dalton Hopkins of Frontstretch before the race. “He’s just going to be a warm body sitting on top of the box. You know, they’ve got enough stuff from the shop and enough technology these days of being able to have the crew chief still involved. So, um, I could say I could do the same thing with one of my truck teams, but the guys at the shop would be the ones handling it.

“Still, great, you know, cool. Eyeballs, and putting some attention on their team, and stuff like that. I mean, JRM is one of the top two, three teams in the Xfinity Series. So, let the best man win.”

Kyle Busch reacts to backlash from Dale Earnhardt Jr. comments

Denny Hamlin had some thoughts as well. His came after the fact, during Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast. Hamlin gave Earnhardt his props while acknowledging he certainly had some help.

“I think we’ve got to give Dale Jr. a little bit of due and certainly, don’t want to undersell the fact that the team was doing the heavy lifting,” Hamlin said. “I think that the answer can be somewhere in between of Kyle Busch says he’s nothing but a warm body up there — the TV sells it as if he’s an actual crew chief — I think the answer is probably somewhere in between. But you still got to be responsible, right?

“You got to get the messages to the driver, and he saw opportunities, strategy wise, and he’s probably talking to the engineers about the strategy. The result was he was walking to Victory Lane at the end of that race and obviously, Connor drove that car fantastic.”

Busch clarified his comments after Zilisch’s win. He posted the following on his X account:

“This has nothing to do with any animosity towards Dale Jr,’ Busch tweeted. “I’m referencing how silly the suspensions for crew chiefs are these days with all the technology they have to stay in contact with their teams. I’d say the same thing if [Jeff Gordon] went on a [Hendrick Motorsports] box as a crew chief.”