It’s no secret that despite being a Cup team owner, Denny Hamlin is a fierce competitor as well. While he appreciates his team’s victories, he’s not shy about his discontent when he isn’t the one crossing the finish line. This sentiment was at the heart of a recent clarification on his podcast about his mixed feelings toward teammate wins.
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The #11 driver found himself involved in controversy, accused of jeopardizing his former teammate Kyle Busch’s race at COTA by colliding with Austin Dillon to trigger a caution in the final laps that helped his teammate Christopher Bell win the race.
Denying such allegations, Hamlin expressed his competitive nature, stating that seeing his teammates win stings because they set the benchmark for comparison.
Delving deeper into this on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin elaborated, “You’re happy for them… After the race, I’m congratulating Heather and Joe because like it’s a big win for the team… But as a driver and as a competitor, we do not like seeing our teammates win because it’s like then it’s the license registration please; the flashlight’s on you…”
On the 78th lap, as Dillon and Hamlin jockeyed for the P20 position, Hamlin’s #11 car unexpectedly locked up, causing a collision with the right side of Dillon’s #3 Chevy. The impact sent the RCR driver careening into the gravel, bringing out a caution.
Television replays captured a cloud of dust billowing from the JGR car moments before it arguably lost its braking capability, culminating in the mishap.
The caution was a key moment that changed the whole dynamic of the race. It allowed Bell to switch to fresher tires — a move that paid off when he surged past Busch [who led 43 laps in the race] with only five laps remaining.
Had the race continued uninterrupted, the worn tires on the #20 car could have compromised its speed. This led several spectators to openly speculate that Hamlin had deliberately engineered the crash. Although Hamlin refuted these claims, the footage raised suspicions that the crash might not have been purely accidental.
Even if he didn’t intend to jeopardize Busch’s race, the incident could have been Hamlin’s way of retaliating against Dillon for a prior clash at Richmond, where the #3 driver’s aggressive racing forced Hamlin into the wall.
