Denny Hamlin Confesses to Conspiring with Kyle Larson at Bristol

At the Bristol Motor Speedway, the Joe Gibbs Racing quartet ran riot. But eventually, it was Denny Hamlin who triumphed and locked his Playoff berth. However, this win did not come easy for the JGR star. His victory came amid tire chaos unfolding around him, and even he was on the brink of losing a wheel a few times. So maybe it was teamwork with his three teammates that saw Hamlin drive to victory lane. However, what is more interesting to note is that he also cooperated with one of his rivals.

How did Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson work together on the track?

As it happened, Hamlin and Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson opted to work together for a portion of the race. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver even opened up about the tactic in the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. Hamlin said, “At one point in the race – they mentioned it on TV, they actually mentioned it was Ty [Gibbs]. It was actually Kyle Larson.”

“We were side-by-side for the lead. They didn’t show much of it. But I came on the radio and said, ‘Go to Kyle Larson’s spotter and ask him, is he good at blocking the track here?’ Let’s just run side-by-side really slow and keep everyone stacked up behind us.” Soon, Cliff Daniels got back to the #11 team, saying, “Yeah, we’re good doing that.” Then, Hamlin further explained how fun it was to see the strategy work.

He stated, “He was on the bottom in the better lane, and eventually, I wore my stuff out running up the race track. It was fun, us running really slow, side-by-side. I knew it was going to be a crazy number of passes. No telling how many green flag passes that race had. We’ve never seen anything like this, not in my day.”

The tactic worked because the Bristol Motor Speedway is small, and overtaking is not easy. Also, high tire wear was the storyline of Food City 500. Describing a point in the race when Ty Gibbs was right behind the JGR driver, urging him to go faster, Hamlin explained how he let Gibbs take the lead. That was because he knew “it was only a matter of time” before his tires fell off.

Considering Bristol is also a short track, the Virginia native knew its combination with tire management would work in his favor. “That’s what I grew up here doing in the short tracks in the Mid Atlantic, South Boston (Va.), Martinsville. Once it became a tire-management race, I really liked our chances,” Hamlin explained.

As mentioned, this race devolved into mayhem, as the Goodyear tires did not last as long as many had hoped. Owing to that, there were many failures and incidents, to the point where Goodyear scrambled an extra set of tires for the surviving cars.

What did NASCAR have to say about the whole tire debacle?

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Right after the race ended, the media rushed to the officials, looking for some answers. It was NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, John Probst, who rose to the occasion. He had an interesting stance, addressing what NASCAR could have done differently, but he also expressed what he truly felt about the race.

He said, “We’ll go back and look at it all. There were times in the race, obviously, when there was anxiety around [having] enough tires to finish it. But man, coming out the end and watching all that, I would not want to change much at all, honestly. Just maybe give them more tires [in the fall].”

“[It was] certainly a record-setting day for us,” Probst said. “I know the race teams are probably pretty wore out right now. Certainly had some anxiety around some tire wear and things like that. All in all, I think it was probably one of the best short-track races I’ve ever seen.”

As the race went on, the tire wear steadily got worse, and the teams began to struggle. It didn’t take long for everyone to change their driving style and try to manage their wear. The silver lining for this race was that it bore witness to a track record of 54 lead changes between 16 different drivers, culminating with Hamlin as the last one.

READ MORE: Kyle Larson Concedes Defeat to Superior Denny Hamlin After a Confusing Bristol Run