Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Defends Denny Hamlin’s Kansas Gesture

We have all heard the phrase “what goes around comes around.” Denny Hamlin seemed like a believer in it, too, on Sunday. One such moment took place between Hamlin and Todd Gilliland during the race at Kansas. 

During the AdventHealth400 race, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver led the majority of the race and began lapping cars. One of those lapped cars was that of Front Row Motorsports driver Todd Gilliland. Fortunately for Gilliland, he did his best to stay with Hamlin, which helped him gain six spots. Towards the end of the run, Denny slowed down, letting Gilliland back on the lead lap. 

However, this move by the 23XI co-owner left people divided. Travis Rockhold, a member of Denny Hamlin’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast, didn’t like the move. In an X post, he wrote, “I don’t like it. And have made my feelings known in the Denny Bros group text.”

However, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spoke against this sentiment. He defended Hamlin’s move on the aforementioned podcast, saying, “The way this works, I’m not sure a lot of people know how this works in our sport anymore. It’s 10 of us that know how it works. Denny knows whether he is lapping me at Martinsville or lapping me at the end of that race, it comes back around.”