Dale Earnhardt Jr. empathizes with both Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace for their last lap battle – and resulting contact – that cost both of them the win this past Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
Advertisement
On this week’s edition of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt tried to play devil’s advocate for both drivers, trying to see things from both of their perspectives.
First, here’s Junior’s viewpoint on Hamlin:
“Denny’s personality and his approach and his ownership technique and everything, he’ll say, ‘If you’re going to drive my cars, this is this is how I do business.’ Will he do this every time? No. But this could in these situations, racing for a championship and so forth, this is what I’m going to do, what I’m willing to do, and that’s his prerogative, that’s his choice.
“It’s not the way I would have done it, but don’t be mad when they race. I’m not sitting there with 59 Cup wins, either. So, I like his attitude of going for it. I think he has to go for it. He owes it to his team.”
Hamlin ultimately finished runner-up to race winner Chase Elliott, who snuck by when Wallace and Hamlin were too busy with each other to see Elliott sliding by on the inside of the frontstretch, just a few hundred feet from the finish line.
Yet at the same time, Earnhardt had empathy for Wallace and what he had to deal with.
“I just hate it because Bubba was in a good spot and did everything all day long to sort of put himself in a great spot,” Junior said. “And his own team owner, I think if you’re Bubba, it’s hard to go, ‘Man, I can’t, I don’t feel good about this.’ And I don’t want to, I shouldn’t assume, but if I’m Bubba, I’m sitting there going, ‘Man, I don’t want to be okay with this. I’m not okay with this.’”
Earnhardt also gave Wallace kudos for how he acted professionally in light of the incident with his boss.
“I think Bubba was very professional,” Earnhardt said. “Did a great job in his (post-race) interview. But he had every opportunity and every right to be frustrated about that and voice that opinion. But it’s pretty interesting.
“We could put ourselves in Denny’s shoes, but put yourself in Bubba’s shoes.”
Wallace is 26 points below the cutline heading into the eliminator at the Roval.
