The recent Cup Series race at the Richmond Raceway threw a lot many things at the drivers. With William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and many others getting spun out, Kyle Larson took home his first victory of the season along with his teammate and Xfinity Series driver, Josh Berry, picking up the runner-up spot. While the race proved to be great for Hendrick Motorsports drivers, things were completely different for Joe Gibbs Racing. Let’s just say Denny Hamlin had an outing to forget this past Sunday.
Hamlin encountered multiple penalties and got frustrated during the race, following which he arguably vented his anger at his rival, JJ Yeley. After all of this, he finished 20th and became a topic of discussion on Dale Earnhardt Jr‘s podcast.
Dale Earnhardt Jr feels Denny Hamlin ruined his own race at Richmond
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The Cup Series race at Hamlin’s home track proved to be a complete disaster for him. He finished 20th, which surprised many as they usually see him among the top drivers of the grid. But as things unraveled, it came to light that Hamlin lost a lot of time because of the two penalties imposed on him, which made the No. 11 Toyota driver furious.
During his ‘Dale Jr Download’ podcast, Dale Jr emphasized what added to Denny’s fury during the race. He said, “Denny appears to get a little frustrated with JJ. Denny is in the middle of a 3 wide and JJ is smashing him into the car. I mean, there’s a lot of contact and literally, the next corner Denny drives through him, and JJ ends up in the fence.”
JJ Yeley‘s block added to the frustration and, out of impulsivity, Hamlin bumped out Yeley. Dale revealed that after the race, Yeley addressed the hypocritical act and commented, “Yeah the guy talking about respect is out here running over everybody. Isn’t that ironic!?”
Dale believes Denny is not the type of guy that bumps the drivers into the fence on purpose. But he adds to it by saying, “I think he was frustrated and I don’t think that he wanted JJ Yeley to be in the fence, but I do think that he wanted to show his frustration to JJ about how he felt like.”
“I think he was frustrated, he might have lost a little bit of control of his extremities there for a second,” he added.
It looked like Hamlin intentionally wrecked Yeley to sort his situation, but to no avail. However, Dale put forth some points which make us believe otherwise. But where did Denny lose so much time that made him furious to the extent of wrecking JJ?
The pit stop that took too long
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During the first stage of the race, the JGR driver sped up in the pit lane, attracting a penalty. However, he got a chance during the race to gain the lead by applying a clever strategy. The strategy, however, completely failed, as caution was raised at the last moment.
With one penalty and one failed strategy, Hamlin only thought about recovering as fast as he could. But in that process, he did another violation by again speeding in the pit lane, attracting another penalty and adding to the ongoing misery.
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Denny’s wreck with JJ didn’t benefit him and also took Yeley’s chance to have a good outing. But do you think Denny was at fault there?