The last few laps at the 2024 Clash at The Coliseum could be deemed a separate race in itself, or better to say, a Denny Hamlin showdown. With barely 10 laps to go, Hamlin felt strongly about his chances of winning the unofficial season opener. And his feelings got even stronger when his teammate Ty Gibbs spun out of Kyle Larson’s bumper and took the event to its seventh caution and a two-lap shootout. Hamlin maintained his grasp on the lead and outran Kyle Busch, who finished second and 0.610 seconds behind him.
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To some fans, the final restart was too clean to be true. But in a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, the JGR speedster admitted that he wasn’t too surprised at how smooth that last restart was. After all, a win in The Clash didn’t mean anything point-wise; no wonder the drivers didn’t go that extra inch to turn things around for themselves. However, Hamlin credited someone else for his seamless ride to the victory lane.
It is his ex-teammate, Kyle Busch. Despite having upheld the title of NASCAR’s bad boy for several years, Hamlin felt like Rowdy had always been fair to him. He said, “Honestly if I had anyone to choose to be behind me on a green-white-checkered, as much as he wore the black hat for many many years… Kyle Busch has been probably the most fair to me.” He concluded by saying that Busch is very fair when it comes to racing for wins.
Denny Hamlin was surprised at Ross Chastain’s antics
There wasn’t any feud in the race’s closing laps, for sure. But what happened just 10 laps before the checkered flag made Hamlin exclaim, “What the h*** was that?” Even co-host Jared Allen joined in saying, “You can put on a 150-lap exhibition race, it’s just a win, doesn’t mean anything; it’s not a points race and then leave with four-five altercations like this.” So what happened?
Michael McDowell got Chastained, is what happened. But it was just a mistake, said McDowell, as quoted by Allen. On lap 140 and turn 3, the Trackhouse driver hit the outside wall and rebounded into the #34 Front Row Ford, spinning the latter around. Hamlin agreed that Ross Chastain had hit the gas too hard, moving up to the wall, and instead of staying on the wall, he pulled it down and right-reared McDowell’s machine.
“It looked a lot worse than probably it meant to be, but Chastain was just trying to chase his car,” said Hamlin. “I was four foot from him; I saw the same thing as McDowell did. Chastain hit the gas way too hard, right reared it off the wall but instead of keeping it up on the wall, he just pulled it down and got into McDowell’s right rear. I don’t know… everybody is mad at everybody I guess?”
All things considered, the preponed race at The Coliseum did serve its purpose of getting the hype up and the momentum going for next week’s race at Daytona. Needless to say, 2024 is going to be an eventful year for NASCAR. As motorsport enthusiasts, we just can’t wait to watch it all pan out!
