Nearly a week after the Denny Hamlin–Ty Gibbs incident at New Hampshire, both Hamlin and Christopher Bell, who was trailing his two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates at the time of the wreck, expressed second thoughts and remorse over what occurred.
Advertisement
“I definitely got hot under the collar, and it went too far on my end,” Hamlin told Fox Sports before Saturday’s NASCAR Cup practice at Kansas Speedway. “There were things I wish I could have done a little bit differently.”
Bell, who spoke to Front Stretch, added, “I think it’s definitely fair to say that a line was crossed and that was bad. We don’t need to get any teammates wrecked. Hopefully, we do better moving forward, and I think that’s the goal for us, to race each other better moving forward.”
Both drivers acknowledged there was a meeting between Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Bell, and Chase Briscoe, as well as team owner Joe Gibbs and the elder Gibbs’ daughter-in-law (and Ty’s mother), Heather Gibbs. It’s unclear if the fourth JGR Cup driver, Briscoe, was also in the meeting.
The Younger Gibbs Frustrated the Veteran Hamlin
The incident occurred about one-third of the way through the race, when Ty Gibbs refused to let Hamlin or Bell — both in the NASCAR Cup playoffs, while the younger Gibbs is not — get by him as they fought for 11th position. It took several laps of Gibbs failing to yield to his teammates before a frustrated Hamlin finally pitted him into the wall, wrecking his car and ending his day.
Joe Gibbs initially faced criticism when he said after the race that it had long been his policy to let drivers work out disagreements among themselves. However, given how long the situation persisted — including a meeting with Joe Gibbs, the drivers, and Heather Gibbs three days after the incident — it became necessary for Coach Gibbs to step in and offer his guidance to prevent something like this from happening again.
“It was productive,” Bell said. “We don’t need to get any teammates wrecked. Hopefully, we do better moving forward.”
“I think [we] are in a good place. The [conversations] were all productive. The guts of that are going to be confidential,” Hamlin further stated.
However, the younger Gibbs remained silent about the incident and did not address the team meeting on Wednesday.
Will Joe Gibbs Continue His Hands-Off Policy? It Remains To Be Seen
Joe Gibbs was put in the middle of things because Ty is his grandson, and it’s natural for a family member, particularly a grandfather, to stand up for another family member, such as a grandson.
“I think we all want to see each other do well and succeed,” said Bell. “The only thing that I will sum this up is that we had a productive meeting and I feel optimistic about changes moving forward.”
While all four drivers refused to reveal specifics of what transpired in Wednesday’s meeting, they appear to have come away with a better understanding of teammate etiquette.
“All the drivers had an opportunity to speak and try to come up with a plan,” Hamlin said. “We did our best to come up with one.”
Even though Briscoe was not involved in the Loudon incident, he has skin in the game as a JGR playoff driver and wants to ensure he doesn’t get into a tussle with his teammates going forward.
Briscoe also complimented the elder Gibbs, who won three Super Bowl championships as an NFL head coach, has earned several Cup championships over 34 years as a NASCAR team owner, and is a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
“I was just mind-blown by just how good (the elder Gibbs) is in just being a coach and just a leader,” Briscoe admitted. “It makes sense why he’s been successful on the racing side of things, but even the coaching side.
“He’s just so good at explaining stuff and putting things into perspective.”
Joe Gibbs Got His Message Across Quietly and Subtly
When asked to elaborate on how the elder Gibbs got his point across to all four drivers, Briscoe noted, “Just us being smarter. You look at (Team) Penske, they are probably the best example of just how to help each other out, and they know that the more they can help each other, the better it’s going to be for all of them.
“It’s something that, truthfully, we probably haven’t done the greatest job at. And that was the conversation essentially. We can make it way easier on ourselves. It’s already hard to win a championship as it is. … We’re not doing ourselves any favors, as hard as it is, just on each other.”
Briscoe then added a promise: “Things will be different going forward for us. Unfortunately, stuff has to happen, but typically, when you have to have tough conversations, things are normally for the better going forward. So I’m sure it will be different.”
We’ll find out if that’s the case if a similar situation arises Sunday at Kansas or the five other remaining Cup races this season.
