Dale Earnhardt Jr Reacts as Denny Hamlin Nominates Hendrick Motorsports Rival to “Babysit” His Kids

Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr didn’t have too much in common until a few days earlier. The Joe Gibbs Racing man is entering what could be his most important season in recent years, but at the same time, he will be partnering with Junior in his podcast exploits.

Hamlin announced the release of his podcast collaboration with Dirty Mo Media earlier this month. The production company is most famous for its Dale Jr Download podcast, among its other podcast offerings.

They released a video on Instagram where Hamlin was asked, “Most likely to babysit Denny Hamlin’s kids?” Hamlin was quick to answer with “William Byron.” But then he went on to change his mind. 

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“You know what? Aw, that’s close. Ricky [Stenhouse Jr] would be… you know what? I’m gonna change my answer to Ricky, and then William second. Because Ricky has actually volunteered to take Taylor, my oldest, to the dirt track.”

“I tried to warn him, “Do you know what you’re getting into? She is going to drive you crazy. No, it’s fine, I got it. He does a really good job. You can tell that he’s testing the waters to see if he can handle a kid.”

Dale Jr too got into the act and shared the video on his Stories. And though Ricky might have won this battle, Hamlin’s initial choice being Byron was a little surprising given what happened last year.

The infamous Denny Hamlin list

2022 wasn’t the most productive of years for either Hamlin or Byron. However, JGR and Hendrick Motorsports drivers came to blows at the Texas Motor Speedway—an incident that NASCAR admitted to missing during the race.

As Byron and Hamlin clashed under caution, the latter spun out and lost out on a strong finish. Visibly outraged by the way things transpired, and further enraged by the lack of punitive actions, Hamlin didn’t mince his words.

Racing America reported, “I mean, you know, I keep hearing these guys. I’ll just add it to the list of guys when I get a chance. They’re going to get it. It all just works itself out.

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“We’ll be racing each other at some point. He’ll lose a lot of spots because he’s racing me. This is hard racing, obviously. I’m fine with hard racing. But wrecking me under caution is obviously not what we were bargaining for,” an infuriated Hamlin said.

At the end of it all, neither of the drivers made it to the Championship 4 race in Phoenix. No winners at the end of it.