“It doesn’t matter if they are booing or cheering, as long as they’re making noise.”
-Dale Earnhardt
No one seems to have a clip of the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion actually speaking this line, but everyone from Jeff Gordon to Kurt Busch recounts having been told a version of it in one fashion or the other.
Its accuracy notwithstanding, the maxim has become every bit a NASCAR truism as the rubbin’ is racin’ line from Days of Thunder, and the people were making a lot of noise resulting from the rubbin’ and racin’, respectively on Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
Denny Hamlin v. Kyle Larson
Denny Hamlin v. Alex Bowman
Austin Dillon v. Tyler Reddick
Ryan Preece v. Corey Lajoie
Fans v. NASCAR Race Control
Joey Logano v. Pocono Tow Truck Operators
NASCAR doesn’t need this kind of shishshow every week, but it sure is good for business when it happens organically every now and then. After all, the mainstream appeal of the sport was literally built on a fight in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 Daytona 500.
It’s a discipline of motorsport built upon layers of big personalities in close competition and interpersonal conflict. That Stock Cars have fenders, and a largely self-policing garage, is what separates NASCAR from every other category on Planet Earth.
Otherwise, especially with the current generation of race car, this would just be the American V8 Supercar Series.
There was a time in the not-too-distant past that Cup Series racing had started to become too vanilla, too sterile and bogged down by its place in the Fortune 500 marketing landscape. God forbid someone throw a punch or get sideways on television because it would make their partners look bad.
It wasn’t too long ago that those of us on the inside pondered if the drivers’ motorhome lot played a role in how friendly the competition had become to each other. How could you really get mad at someone who parked next to you every week, knowing your kids will literally play with each other the following weekend.
The current championship format, and the cutthroat emphasis it places on winning, has changed everything.
Hamlin and Larson are good friends, as close as it gets on the tour these days, which makes it cut deeper when a perceived breach of ethics decided the race like it did on Sunday. For the second year in a row, Hamlin washed up the track and placed a competitor towards the Turn 1 wall on a late restart to reach the finish line first.
It’s well-documented how much tension and animosity had developed between Hamlin and Ross Chastain before Pocono last year, which makes it all the more puzzling to Larson that his friend treated him the same way as if he were his biggest rival.
This also came one restart after Alex Bowman spun with Hamlin pressuring him from behind — albeit with no contact. Hamlin was completely unapologetic immediately after the race.
“Both guys wrecked themselves,” Hamlin said. “There was a lane. He missed the corner first, and evidently he didn’t have his right-side tires clean. When he gassed up, he just kept going again.
“You know, you have an option in those positions to either hold it wide open and hit the fence or lift and race it out. Those are the choices they made. I didn’t hit either one of ’em. Didn’t touch ’em.”
Larson had a comeback that only a close friend could.
“Yeah, we’re friends,” Larson said. “Yes, this makes things shitty and awkward. You know, whatever.
“He’s always right. All the buddies know Denny’s always right. I’m sure he was in the right there, as well. It is what it is. I’m not going to let it tarnish our friendship on track, but I am pissed. I feel like I should be pissed.
“Tune in to Actions Detrimental. He’ll have a long clip on it.”
Larson hit Hamlin with a shot at his podcast! You know, the same podcast that fans are calling Actions Hypocritical on Sunday night, a reference to how frequently Hamlin talks about the rampant disrespect drivers are subjecting each other to over the past several seasons compared to those halcyon motorhome lot days.
The drama is so palpable for NASCAR fans, the attending audience belting Hamlin with boos as he celebrated on the frontstretch, or maybe towards the sanctioning body for the delayed caution call that ended the race.
Preece had spun due to contact from Lajoie before the white flag and never hit the wall, NASCAR waiting until the final lap to see if the Stewart-Haas No. 41 could return to speed before the field came back around. He didn’t and that left NASCAR no choice to end the race under yellow with Tyler Reddick poised to challenge Hamlin for the win.
So, fans are mad at NASCAR too, even if their intentions to save the field from another restart while letting the race play out to a natural conclusion was an admirable one. Meanwhile, Preece charged at Lajoie as he was getting out of his car, every expletive he shouted towards the No. 7 getting bleeped out and making it appear as if he was speaking in Morse Code.
Drama!
Everyone leaves Pocono, whether they attended or not, excited to see what happens next week at Richmond. NASCAR is a hearts and minds kind of industry, and the sport is better when its audience has someone to root for and just as hard to root against.
Petty v. Pearson
Waltrip v. Rusty
Gordon v. Earnhardt
Johnson v. The World
There is a certain subset of the NASCAR audience that will hate the comparison, but the theatrics of the disciplined have always resembled the world of professional wrestling. There are babyfaces and heels, with key races serving as the de facto Pay-Per-Views where feuds are settled, and where championships are won and lost.
These kinds of theatrics are every bit NASCAR’s identity on par with what Earnhardt told his peers and what the fictional Harry Hyde told Cole Trickle.
NASCAR is at its best when there are big personalities and even close friends, willing to race each other hard and not back down when pressed about the ethics over it.
Hamlin certainly isn’t backing down when told of what Larson said on pit road.
“He’s run me off a bunch of road courses and called me and said he was sorry,” Hamlin recounted. “I said, ‘I’m going to stand my ground next time.’ I’m not here to defend anything. I put both those guys, (Bowman) and (Larson) in an aero situation. I didn’t touch either one. How can you wreck someone you don’t touch?
“They make a decision to either let off the gas and race side by side or hit the gas and hit the wall. I mean, I (left) them to those decisions. I didn’t overshoot the corner. I was behind. I tried to get position on him, knew it was going to be tight off of two, but always made sure I left a lane or more, more than a lane.”
Larson said he got raced the same way Hamlin raced Chastain, his bitter nemesis.
“Same move he made to Bubba,” Hamlin said. “Did he mention that?”
No, he didn’t.
“Gotcha,” Hamlin said.
Juicy.
So palpably juicy.
“We’re racing for the win, are you shitting me,” Hamlin added. “I mean, if I’m going to give anyone the respect, it’s Kyle Larson just because I respect him as a race car driver, and I think he’s probably the best. Certainly, he’s got my respect. But, damn, I mean, we’re all racing for a win. I guarantee you, roles reversed, it goes the same way.”
The fans probably won’t like that response either, but at the end of the day, they’re making a lot of noise about it.
And that matters.
Just ask Earnhardt.
Related: NASCAR power rankings: Denny Hamlin’s win at Pocono creates controversy