Denny Hamlin stood to win three consecutive races if he had succeeded in beating Kyle Larson at Bristol on Sunday. But neither missing out on creating history nor his popular issues with the Next-Gen car were enough to make him discredit Larson from the dominant victory. He believed that the Hendrick Motorsports driver won the day fair and square.
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Larson led 411 of 500 laps on Sunday. This has led to the argument that the Next-Gen car is not good enough to put on interesting races. One would have expected Hamlin to agree. But the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran surprised many by not being willing to throw mud on the car just because Larson dominated and won.
He said after the race, “You’ve got to give teams their due when they dominate. We shouldn’t throw mud on, you know, the racing or whatever, because someone goes out there and dominates. I at least kept them honest for a little while there.” Hamlin finished in second place to record the seventh time that he and Larson have finished 1-2.
“We shouldn’t throw mud on the racing because someone goes out there and dominates,” @dennyhamlin said post-race.
His full comments: #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/WcbNSN9GaQ
— Noah Lewis (@Noah_Lewis1) April 13, 2025
It is also the first of those seven occasions in which Larson has come out on top. At the end of the day, the race rounded off a really strong month for Hamlin. It was his fourth straight top-5 finish, and he is in a great spot heading into the Easter break. Even NASCAR officials will be spellbound that he has ignored a great chance to criticize the promotion and the car.
Larson’s response to criticisms of his dominance
Larson made it clear in his post-race interview that he would be biased about how interesting the race was. It ran under the green flag for over 200 laps, and Larson led most of them. However, he also stressed that doing so wasn’t without challenges. He still had to manage his tires and keep competitors like Hamlin at bay.
He also pointed out how they were all able to race closer to 100% of their car’s abilities as opposed to what was possible in the heavy tire-wear race that took place at Bristol last season. The driver said that he would love it if the tire laid more rubber to make the surface slicker and greasier, like in the Xfinity Series.
Admittedly biased given his dominance, Kyle Larson gives his thoughts on the ideal Bristol race.
Larson says he prefers pushing his car to the limit as opposed to running 50% and saving tires, while expressing skepticism that this year’s race would’ve been anything like last… pic.twitter.com/9vSg4rQoRS
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) April 14, 2025
At the end of his thoughts, he had one question. He pondered, “I’m curious if fans would’ve thought that was exciting if we just rode in a train for 500 laps around the bottom while running 50% and all still wearing our tires out at about the same time anyway.” From a personal point of view, he believes that races are more exciting when drivers are allowed to push the best they can.
