One of the most talked-about points from the race at Kansas last weekend was the contact between teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. Although Larson did not intentionally hit Elliott, the latter decided to retaliate anyway. Interestingly, Elliott’s retaliation was reminiscent of how he swerved against Denny Hamlin earlier in the season.
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Speaking about the incident between the two teammates, Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts about what Elliott might have thought in the heat of the moment, and how he was not entirely wrong this time.
Denny Hamlin finds the Elliott-Larson altercation humorous
On the recent episode of the podcast Actions Detrimental, Hamlin stated, “I actually found quite humor and Bob Pockrass’ tweet when he was asking Chase Elliott was like you know what? What message were you sending to Larson?”
He added, “After he left pit road… He’s like, message? There was no message. He’s questioning him like, ‘What are you talking about, Bob? Why are you asking me this question? I don’t want you to ask this question.’ But I find it super humorous.”
According to Hamlin, Larson had no choice but to make the move that led to the incident with Elliott. The JGR driver explained that the #6 car of Brad Keselowskicar was coming out of its pit box, and the drivers were racing four wide on a narrow pit lane. He further stated that incidents like this do happen frequently, but also acknowledged that Elliott may not have been able to see the situation from his perspective.
“He sees that he’s got a car on the outside, he sees, he’s got a teammate on the inside. And he’s like, ‘Hey, teammate, if you’re gonna run into someone, run into the guy on the left. Don’t run in your teammate on the right,’ that’s probably what his mindset was…”
Hamlin concluded that the incident between Larson and Elliott was a quick reaction and that cooler heads would prevail in situations like these, also stating that neither driver had done anything wrong.
HMS legend chimes in on the Elliott-Larson incident
While speaking on the NASCAR on NBC Podcast, analyst Steve Letarte mentioned, “Here’s the difference between racecar drivers and every other sport. The NFL… We can see the emotion of an athlete on a field.”
“Even in a football helmet, we get fist pumps, we get whatever celebrations we don’t get that as much a NASCAR because the drivers are hidden from the camera.”
Letarte clarified that even with advanced in-car cameras, it can be difficult to capture every detail of a driver’s actions and expressions. He believed that Elliott was simply expressing himself with his gesture and that it was not a big deal. Letarte compared the incident to a minor event in an NFL game that would usually be quickly forgotten.
