Denny Hamlin’s shenanigans with Bubba Wallace in the closing stages of the Hollywood Casino 400 have divided the NASCAR community. Some have called him out for showing aggression toward a driver who races for a team he owns, while others have rallied behind him, calling the battle entertaining and praising Hamlin for standing his ground.
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Like Steve Letarte and Kyle Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ultimately sided with Hamlin. That said, he drew a line regarding how the Joe Gibbs Racing driver chose to race. In Junior’s eyes, the aggression was fair game, but Hamlin could have played it smarter by protecting the bottom late rather than jeopardizing his own driver.
Hamlin stormed off the front row, swept both opening stages, and led 159 of 273 laps before tangling with Wallace in the closing laps. His bid for win No. 60 went begging. While Letarte lauded the intensity that kept fans glued to the finish, Junior took a more measured stance.
“I like Denny going for it. I think he’s I think he could have done it differently to not let someone else win. I like Denny going for it, but I think he took he just sent it a little bit too hard. You can’t put 23 in the wall, even though Denny giving him a car length and a half, that Denny knows how the aero works… I don’t know truly if the 23 getting into the wall is all Denny or a little bit of both of them.”
Junior questioned Hamlin’s decision-making. “Why didn’t he go to the bottom, right? Why did he drive into the corner and up the track and just totally taking away the 23’s line, right? He had other things, other ways to approach the corner. Not that they would have worked. I mean, the likelihood of him completing the pass is not that high.”
Still, Earnhardt Jr. wished Hamlin had taken another approach, one where he could step out of the car, face his crew, and say that he went for it without wrecking both of them. He went for the win without putting the 23 in the wall. He went for it and still gave both a shot, without letting a Chevrolet slip by for the win.
Meanwhile, Letarte admired Hamlin’s willingness to chase the 60th win of his career regardless of whose bumper he wrecked to get it, and Petty echoed that view. For both, unlike Junior, that kind of elbows-out racing is what defines NASCAR. Drivers can’t be expected to play follow-the-leader; in the end, each one is out to win for himself.
