Denny Hamlin Exposes “Sucky” Hendrick Motorsports & Joe Gibbs Racing Being Outperformed by “Exceeding” Underdogs

Cookout 400 wasn’t what the fans anticipated it to be. In fact, the short track was beyond anyone’s imagination as RFK Racing got their win of the season with the 30-year-old underdog, Chris Buescher claiming the throne outrunning NASCAR’s most winningest teams, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.

While the veteran Denny Hamlin saved the JGR camp from total humiliation, the race runner-up also exposed the teams’ vulnerability, citing how “uncharacteristic” was for both behemoths to go down in utter flames.

Though the JGR driver exposed both teams’ soft underbelly to the community, he also made sure he gave enough credit to RFK Racing for the Cinderella story, outperforming 2 of the sport’s most dominant teams and putting them to shame.

Denny Hamlin bashes HMS and JGR camps, mentioning their awful slump

It was a feast for the underperforming Ford as they made their mark with a stellar show of dominance, outclassing Hendrick Chevrolets and outracing Joe Gibbs’ Toyotas. While the HMS camp finished the race miserable with all 4 cars out of the top 10, JGR Toyotas too had a similar fate, with only 2 of its 4 cars in the top 10.

With 6 out of 10 cars being Fords, the day was a sounding defeat for both organizations. Mentioning the awful fate of the team, veteran driver and 23XI Racing co-owner, Denny Hamlin destroyed both teams, exposing their vulnerability.

Speaking on his Action Detrimental podcast, Hamlin mentioned how RFK Racing, unlike other Ford teams, were constantly improving.

He said, “Steve Newmark, the RFK group, the Fenway group, Brad (Keselowski) everyone who is a part of it, you know certainly put a lot of work into it to get to this point in a year where their performance has dramatically taken a step forward when you’d agree the manufacturer or the people that drive for that manufacturer has taken a step back. So they’re exceeding expectations and out kicking their car certainly at this point.”

While Hamlin lauded the team for their massive stride, his co-host, Jared Allen on the other hand, asked about the #6 [C. Buescher] and #17 [B. Keselowski] being in sync with each other, finishing the race 1st and 6th. To this, Hamlin said, “It’s the more cars you have the harder it is to lump them all together, I mean on the flip side yeah Hendrick, they were, I think Cliff Daniels [crew chief of #5 HMS team] said on the radio, yeah we were all the same, equally sucky like you know we’re all just you know sometimes you see that and sometimes you see 1 break away from the other, I think the Gibbs cars they didn’t show what I thought they would yesterday.” 

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Summing it up, the 42-year-old concluded his take, saying, “It was really a 23XI and RFK track.” 

Hamlin goes head over heels, lauding Chris Buescher and RFK Racing

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For those who missed out on the action at Richmond, at the later stages of the race, the #17 car of Chris Buescher had a 6-second lead over the tailing #11 Toyota of Hamlin. The 30-year-old even had the chance to lap NASCAR’s golden boy, Chase Elliott in the final laps of the race but instead decided not to. That’s how dominant the RFK Fords were.

And adding to it was fellow veteran and team co-owner, Brad Keselowski‘s impressive run to win Stage 2.

Hamlin, being the honest guy, didn’t shy away from praising the driver and the team, saying, “Chris (Buescher) did a great job driving the car and RFK just was phenomenal also I just can’t give them enough credit, I know what it takes to you know build a team and yes that team has been established for a while but you know to take it from the struggling years that they had to you know making a race winning organization now, a couple of years in a row it’s phenomenal.”

While his own driver, Tyler Reddick, won his first-ever stage at a short track, his reign was short-lived as a pit lane penalty got the #45 car back to the middle. However, the 23XI Racing Toyotas showed speed with both Reddick and his teammate, Bubba Wallace putting out an impressive performance by being constantly at the top.

Hamlin then concludes his take by saying the obvious, “I know they struggled at practice but yeah I mean very uncharacteristic, I think of the Gibbs cars in general, it wasn’t a Gibbs and Hendricks day for sure. So I think that I mean RFK and 23XI showed the way for the most part of the race and I think the fasted car won, I think it is hard to dispute it.”

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