After Joe Gibbs’s Grandson’s Punchgate Fiasco, Denny Hamlin Calls Out Dale Jr’s Prodigy’s Intentional Move

After Saturday’s Xfinity race at Watkins Glen, there seem to be just two highlights from the track. One is Sam Mayer’s second road course win, and the other is his move on his last year’s rival. In 2022, While Brandon Brown had snatched the victory, Gibbs and Mayer battled for the $100,000 cash prize. But due to a contact from Mayer, Gibbs ran straight into the wall.

After having lost the fight for the win last year, the young speedsters decided to fight off the track. The result? Ty Gibbs hurled 5 punches at his rival, two of which had surely landed. And Saturday’s skirmish was perhaps a sequel to the rivalry between the two Xfinity drivers.

There are several opinions regarding who was at fault in Watkins Glen, but most agreed that Joe Gibbs’ grandson deserved it. Denny Hamlin, however, begs to differ.

Dale Earnhardt Jr is obviously happy with his driver’s performance as the latter bagged two back-to-back victories at Road America and Glen. However, the 23XI Racing co-owner argued that what Sam Mayer did was purely intentional.

Denny Hamlin revealed his take on the Mayer-Gibbs scuffle

As the Shriners Children’s 200, the driver of the #19 Toyota Supra revved his engine and won both stages after leading 70 out of the 86 laps of the race. However, sitting in the third position for an overtime restart, Ty Gibbs faced his doom. Sam Mayer nudged Joe Gibbs’ Grandson and sent him spinning out of the track, gained the lead from Sheldon Creed around the turn, and led the rest of the race. According to ESPN, Mayer said, “I wheel-hopped it, I feel bad for doing that, obviously.”

“You don’t want to take out a Gibbs car like that or any car like that. But just trying to get another win in the Xfinity Series,” he added.

While one would perhaps agree, Denny Hamlin did not. According to him, that act was pre-planned. He said in an episode of his podcast, “The way he did it was wrong. He didn’t even attempt to make the corner. If there was nobody in front of Sam Mayer, he would have went off into the distance because he overdrove the corner to get to Ty.”

Denny Hamlin felt like Sam deliberately drove to the left because he wanted to and not because it was an accidental wheel-hopping. He clearly stated, “He did not wheel-hop and cause him to get into the corner too deep. He drove in too deep because he wanted to hit Ty.”

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While the Xfinity Series drivers battled for the win, Denny Hamlin and Jared Allen took a hike

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It seems like roles have reversed as Denny Hamlin, who was once so obsessed with the Xfinity Series races, does not even keep up with it anymore. While cruising down the state park in Watkins Glen, he met his co-host and friend Jared Allen, who was on his phone, watching the Xfinity races.

Later on, seeing his Instagram post, fans adored Denny Hamlin’s family outing. The NASCAR icon took his daughters Taylor and Molly hiking with a few others, including Corey LaJoie and Bubba Wallace.

Denny Hamlin made a commendable second-place finish at Watkins Glen. Now NASCAR fans wait to see how well Denny Hamlin performs at the madhouse named Daytona 500. We are as excited as you are!

Read More: “Not My Deal, I’m Out” – Joey Logano Taps Out of Denny Hamlin-Kyle Larson Drama