Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin exchanged a couple of text messages on Thursday night but it’s too early for an in-person meeting following their incident while racing for the win last week at Pocono Raceway.
Hamlin won the HighPoint.com 400 but only after he dived under Larson on the final restart, the side-by-side move sending Larson into the wall and out of contention, creating some tension between the longtime friends.
In fact, the two usually fly to races together but not this weekend, with Hamlin showing no remorse for his actions and Larson feeling as though he was taken advantage of.
Hamlin has reiterated all week that he doesn’t believe he would have done anything differently if given the chance. The victory was his 50th at the highest level of the discipline, but also the 600th win for Toyota across all three NASCAR national touring divisions, but also was the result of a ‘split second’ decision.
“I certainly, I didn’t like the outcome for him. I wish he could have finished second, but it was just one of those things where we flat ran out of room and I made a split-second decision to try to clear him instantly, and you can see from my on-board that I don’t see him. I see him go up the track, and I don’t know where he’s at when I start to throttle-up and I’m saying ‘alright, I’m going to clear him,’ but when I didn’t, I knew we were going to be in a bad spot.”
Denny Hamlin on what happened at Pocono with Kyle Larson
A week later, Larson hasn’t let it go, at least from a professional standpoint, because this is multiple times that he feels Hamlin has used him up on the track.
“I tend to blow things over quickly,” Larson said during a media scrum. “I think (the media) would love to get more out of me a lot of times. I feel I do a good job of that most times. This time, I’ve probably let it linger on my attitude this week, because it’s happened more often with him than any other driver in my career. And then a win was taken. That also makes you frustrated.”
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Larson initiated the series of texts and Hamlin wanted to meet in person this weekend but it’s just too early for that.
“We were just going to agree to disagree and (I would) probably get more frustrated with him,” Larson said. “And I’m sure vice versa. I thought the brief texts we had were good and ultimately was probably the best. I get over things pretty quickly, so I’m sure I’ll get over this over time.”
Hamlin says he wants to give Larson the chance to air his grievances in person.
“There is always going to be a difference of opinion and sometimes you have to agree to disagree,” Hamlin said. “That’s okay, but the biggest thing is I think hearing the other person out and understanding why they are frustrated. Sometimes you get caught up in your own world, thinking about your own team and how important it is to them, and you have an incident like that, you need to sit down and take a second to hear the other side.
“I totally understand that for sure. On why I wanted to have it in person, I did because I thought that we should have that type of relationship.”
Hamlin said, first on his podcast on Monday but also on Saturday, that he has become a more aggressive driver over the past decade because the value of race wins is so much greater under the current championship format.
“Certainly, I think when they started giving Playoff points and stage points – this is what it was geared to do – give us the sense of urgency … and that regular season performance matters to get to the final four with a shot,” Hamlin said. “The system is doing what it was designed to do.”
Larson quibbles with some of that.
Remember last fall when Bubba Wallace was suspended a race for intentionally crashing Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway? Larson actually lobbied NASCAR for a more lenient response because he ultimately felt like he was to blame — that Wallace’s anger was justified.
Larson doesn’t believe, be it physical contact or the byproduct of aerodynamics, that this kind of racing is entirely justifiable.
“Just as Bubba was mad when he wrecked me after I put him in the fence, it’s not something you should be ‘eh, part of it, it’s just racing (and) I left you a lane,’” Larson said. “It’s really not. It’s less than a lane with the air shoving your car to the right. I’d say Pocono really wasn’t the air. I didn’t feel the air. He ran into me before I got to the exit, and I had no option but to hit the wall. I had no angle left for the corner. The air there was way less of a factor, where when I ran Bubba in the wall, that was all air. We never touched. But I ran him into the wall with my air.
“It’s a product of the cars and the aerodynamics, but I wouldn’t say it’s been accepted. You don’t have to touch somebody to wreck somebody. You can use it to your advantage to at least get someone tight where they have to lift off the throttle on exit to kill their run and then be able to side-draft them down the straightaway. I think that’s something we all use most weekends. But since Bubba, I try not to run people into the wall, not that I was trying to run him in the wall then. But I try to be a little more cautious and where I’m positioned and they’re positioned.”