Teammate tangles are pretty common in motorsports. Just a couple of weeks ago, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott had an incident in Kansas. This time around, two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers had an unfortunate coming together that resulted in the retirement of one of them. The two in question were playoff contender Denny Hamlin and last year’s Xfinity Series champion Ty Gibbs.
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The impact took place while Hamlin was trying to leave his pit box. But the timing was such that Hamlin ended up ramming into the side of Gibbs who had been driving down the pit road at the same time. Later on, Hamlin had the opportunity to speak with the press where he revealed his thoughts on what transpired between him and his teammate.
Denny Hamlin speaks about the incident with teammate Ty Gibbs on pit road
After the conclusion of the race, Hamlin spoke with journalist Bob Pockrass and mentioned, “I mean, it definitely took speed out of our car and hate it for Ty, certainly it destroyed his car. But yeah, I had the changer from the two.”
“I was trying to avoid him. He was he just stood up to go around the left side of the car, so I just swing out to avoid him and we were three why there.” Pockrass further asked if Gibbs was just a “victim of circumstance” at that moment.
Hamlin responded, “Yeah, it’s just a tough circumstance for everyone. I mean, certainly when Ty’s position he’s trying to race the guy off the pit road that he’s side by side with… He knows I’m coming out he doesn’t know how far and so it’s a very tough spot to be in for sure.”
Denny Hamlin describes what happened when he had contact with Ty Gibbs on pit road. pic.twitter.com/y2nZ1UVGkq
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 25, 2023
What did Ty Gibbs say about the incident?
Right after the incident, Gibbs had to reverse his car up the pit road and end his race early despite running fairly well early on. Later on, he explained what happened from his perspective and mentioned, “We had a really fast interstate Toyota Camry. Proud of my team’s efforts… It’s just very unfortunate to be put in that situation we were really fast all day.”
When asked if he could have done anything to avoid Hamlin, Gibbs said, “I mean sure. Just gotta look at it.” Obviously, he was disappointed with the outcome that rendered him out of the race.
But in the end, one hopes whatever happened between the two can be sorted out internally and does not affect stuff on the track in future races.
