Amid all the controversy surrounding Denny Hamlin questioning Ty Gibbs’ racing etiquette during last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at New Hampshire, Hamlin was in Gibbs’ position more than 18 years ago when Tony Stewart questioned his racing etiquette.
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It was early in the 2007 Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, just 14 laps into the 400-mile event, when Hamlin and Stewart were running 1-2 and Hamlin essentially brake-checked Stewart.
“All of a sudden, he just stops on the exit of turn four in front of 42 cars, and he can’t expect all of us to drive around him,” Stewart said per Autosport. “He just wrecked two really good race cars. He tried to wreck us in practice on Friday and didn’t get it done. At least he finished it off today.”
“He’s a young guy and he wants to be successful, but I don’t know if he knows what the definition of ‘team’ is right now.”
Stewart and Hamlin eventually settled things between themselves and didn’t need team owner Joe Gibbs to get involved, at least that was the party line between them at the time.
“Denny and I can handle anything that happens on the racetrack with each other,” Stewart continued. “We’re both professional drivers and can handle it. Everybody is good, and we’re all focused on doing what we all do every week. We’re over that hurdle.”
Stewart admitted he let his notorious temper get the better of him at the time.
“Something happens, you get right out of the car, and a camera is right in your face. You get that pure emotion. I’m the first one to open my mouth before I think about what I’m saying. I’m the king of doing that, as far as saying stuff that I wish I wouldn’t have said.”
Hamlin obviously learned a lesson that day, and many observers hope Ty Gibbs did the same at Loudon, where he was like a persistent gnat, failing to let Hamlin and teammate Christopher Bell, both fighting for the Cup championship, get past him.
Hamlin put up with Gibbs’ immaturity long enough before he took matters into his own hands and punted Gibbs into the wall, ending his day.
Hamlin Back Then Was What Gibbs Was Sunday at Loudon
Back in 2007, after having a few days to reflect upon his mistake, Hamlin admitted the wrongness of his ways. “(It’s) tough to go out at all, but with a teammate it’s worse because it affects everyone at JGR, and I hate it for the teams and guys at the shop.”
“Doesn’t really matter how or why it happened, and there is no use pointing fingers. It’s behind us now, we’ll get back to doing what this team does best, run consistently each weekend.”
Not equating these two incidents and saying they’re the same at all, BUT the Denny Hamlin/Ty Gibbs spat is interesting in that Hamlin was once on the other end of it with Tony Stewart at Daytona in 2007.
Said Stewart on his old radio spot:
“He’s a young guy and he wants to be… pic.twitter.com/Gcmf7GffHo— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) September 23, 2025
Stewart added something about his incident with Hamlin that could very well be said by Hamlin today after his own incident with Gibbs: “He’s a young guy and he wants to be successful, but I don’t know if he knows what the definition of ‘team’ is right now.”
