Erik Jones and Legacy Motor Club have been hard at work trying to finish races in respectable positions and on Sunday at Darlington, they were very well in the mix for their best result of the season, which would have been any position higher than 10th place. Unfortunately, in came Denny Hamlin to unravel all the effort they had put in.
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Jones was racing hard with a fast car when Hamlin caused him to spin on Lap 111 and the incident left Jones reeling. Afterward, he had to fight with all might to finish 10th.
Emotions run high in situations like these. But Hamlin accepted his mistake almost immediately after the race and made sure that peace was upheld. Jones, too, appeared to accept the apology despite being heavily disappointed in the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Hamlin has once again reiterated, on Actions Detrimental, that the mistake was completely his. “Everyone’s preferred line was the wall in [turns] 3 and 4,” he said.
“So, everyone was running up, and even the lap before, he [Jones] had run up the racetrack. And I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to go in really hard, really low, and try to get beside him.’ He went low, which he had all the right to because he’s in front of me, so he dictates where to run.”
The surprise move, however, caused Hamlin to drive hard into the back of Jones‘ Camry. He continued, “I told him I was like, ‘Bro, I just up and overdrove the corner. That’s all I can tell you. I thought you were going high. So, I was going to go low, and then when you were right there low with me, I drove in way too deep for a car to be right there in front of me.’ Certainly, my fault on that one.”
Jones finished the race in 10th place. It was his second top-10 of the year, but he felt like he had a top-5 car. He will just have to blame fate for that one and move on to the next race. Hamlin, meanwhile, finished a spot behind him in 11th place. He has three top-10 finishes, two top-5 finishes, and one win so far in the season.
Darlington, however, wasn’t a complete disaster for him. Tyler Reddick, one of his drivers at 23XI Racing, ended up in Victory Lane. So, Sunday was a win for him as a team co-owner, even if it wasn’t so as a driver. The eyeballs now shift to the upcoming race at the Martinsville Speedway.
