NASCAR Insider Questions Denny Hamlin Haters: “You Want Him to Go Out There and Worry About Hurting Kyle Larson’s Feelings?”

A lot of voices, boos, and fingers were raised at Denny Hamlin as he celebrated his landmark 50th win in the NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono Raceway last Sunday. Hamlin, who is certainly not perceived as a fan favorite in the sport, to begin with, had his popularity stock dip further after the recent race. And a very big reason for that was his incident with Kyle Larson.

Hamlin seemingly made contact with Larson with only a few laps to go in the race and took the lead while the #5 hit the wall, leading to not only Larson being pretty mad at Hamlin but a majority of the fans, experts, and insiders too.

However, one insider, spotter Brett Griffin, made a case for Hamlin and justified his move on Larson. Moreover, the spotter also shared his thoughts on Hamlins’ incident with Alex Bowman.

Brett Griffin sides with Denny Hamlin after his controversial incident with Larson

During a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Griffin opened up on the controversial incident between the #5 and the #11. He said, “Looking at this Kyle Larson thing, what are you people … this guy put on a helmet that day, he went out there and put his life on the line, he’s paid millions of dollars to go out there and race, FedEx is a sponsor, Coca Cola is a sponsor, GreatClips is a sponsor, you want him to go out there and worry about hurting Kyle Larson’s feelings? By winning the race?”

“I’m sorry, where I’m from, Denny Hamlin did what he could. It was a racing incident. You could tell the second that Denny got on him, that he lifted to get off of him, but it was too late and it put Kyle in a predicament.”

Griffin then pointed to the major problem he has with the Hamlin-Larson incident. “Kyle Larson, under yellow, drove up to the front, and he ran Denny Hamlin into the wall. I have a major problem with that. That is a personal foul. In any other sport, that’s a personal foul. What happens during a game, happens between the sidelines, it’s part of the game,” he described.

“I feel Denny and Kyle were two grown men going after the same spot. The outcome was the outcome. There’s no call to be made by NASCAR. But NASCAR, if you’re gonna allow people, under yellow, to come up and drive other people into the wall and not penalize them, I have a major problem there.”

Expect trouble whenever Hamlin and Bowman are close, Brett Griffin suggests

The NASCAR spotter also shared his take on the Hamlin-Bowman incident, using an example from the past to make his point. “Remember on your report card when you were really young and they would have this box that said, ‘Plays well with others’, you would get an X on that one because Bowman and Denny don’t like each other,” Griffin said.

“They race each other like a**-hats. It’s every freaking week. If they’re around each other, something’s going to go down. So that is what it is.”

Griffin claimed Denny Hamlin didn’t do anything wrong with Bowman, that he just packed air and Bowman got loose. But the question is, could the same be said about his incident with Kyle Larson?