Kyle Busch isn’t showing great pace this year as he still battles to secure a playoff spot. The two-time Cup Series champion finds himself in a tough spot after parting ways with Joe Gibbs Racing. With his former team, making the playoffs was almost a given, and after over a decade of competing in the final rounds, this might be the first year since 2005 that he doesn’t even enter the playoffs.

Speaking of competition, Denny Hamlin is one of Busch’s biggest rivals, and recently, sparks have been flying between the two. At the Brickyard 400, Busch crashed during the race, forcing it into overtime.

Before the Indianapolis race, Hamlin made a bold remark about his former teammate on the Actions Detrimental podcast and spoke of his winless situation. Despite winning two races last season, the best finish Busch has managed this year is P4 at Atlanta. It’s clear this isn’t his year, and Hamlin hasn’t held back on sharing his thoughts either.

On the July 16 episode of Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin spoke about Kyle Busch’s performance over the weekend. While he mentioned that Kyle Busch has had a winless season so far, he also said, “Can he win a race? Yes, absolutely. But not legitimately. He’s not going to win one legitimately. And that’s just a fact. And I apologize to the Kyle Busch fans listening.”

Denny Hamlin dropped all filters as he explained, “But we have to be honest with ourselves… I’m not putting this on Kyle. Trust me, I’ve been teammates. The guy is elite. He’s great. But you have to show that you can at least consistently run in the top 5 to even have a chance to win. And we haven’t seen that lately.” 

Kyle Busch’s situation is becoming clearer; with just 4 races to go, he will have to give it his all if he wants to make it into the playoffs. He is currently in the danger zone of not making it, but a win can really turn things around for him. Now, coming to the current race, it looks like Hamlin wasn’t far from reality after all.

How Denny Hamlin ended Kyle Busch’s race at Indianapolis

By now, we know that Denny Hamlin was the one to take out Kyle Busch, and although it was not intentional, the damage was done. When the two drivers made contact with only two laps left, the race was sent into overtime. Busch, positioned in sixth, attempted to pass Hamlin on the low side, but his No. 8 Chevrolet drifted up the track, making contact with Hamlin and sending Busch into the Turn 3 wall.

Although Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota remained undamaged, he had to pit due to a low fuel level. For the green-white-checkered restart, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, and Tyler Reddick will occupy the first two rows. Before the incident, Kyle Busch made great progress to the front of the grid, starting at P33. This performance was one that could get him into the playoffs, but the contact ruined the race.

As Hamlin said, Busch is not going to win legitimately; the two-time Cup series winner will have to play it smart if he wants to compete in the playoffs. Unfortunately, a week after speaking about his former teammate, it was Denny Hamlin himself who ended the race for him.

While Hamlin cannot be blamed completely for the incident as each restart of the race had an incident ultimately, it’s up to Busch to find himself a win. This will be the first time in years that Busch will have missed out on the playoffs since 2005. Do you think that Busch still has a chance to compete? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.