Chasing his 50th Cup Series career win, Denny Hamlin wouldn’t have anticipated the backlash he would face. Booed by an angry crowd at Pocono’s Victory Lane, Hamlin was then called out by fans on the internet for his “don’t care” attitude. First, it was Kyle Larson who, uncharacteristically, did not mince words to express his displeasure toward Hamlin. Then, even Ross Chastain joined in on the slander with his “it wasn’t me” comment.

Now back in the studio for a new episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin spoke about Pocono’s final lap incident. However, the surprising element is that while describing the racing action, he revealed glaring signs of internal friction at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Denny Hamlin exposes Martin Truex Jr’s selfishness

With Hendrick Motorsports’ #5 Kyle Larson securing the 2023 HighPoint.com 400’s stage two win, the battle for the final stage lead intensified. Leading the final stage, Larson was accompanied by HMS teammate, #48 Alex Bowman. Closing following behind were Joe Gibbs Racing’s #11 Denny Hamlin and #19 Martin Truex Jr. 

Speaking to podcast co-host Jared Allen regarding the events that unfolded, Denny Hamlin revealed his teammate’s selfish move. “The #48 was not pushing. I think they probably have a conversation in the team about don’t push someone past a teammate, especially for a win. NBC actually played our audio, and I was saying the same thing to Chris, saying, ‘You know, if the #19 just wouldn’t push the #5 on this restart, we got a good chance, we could win this. We are probably gonna win this’. But he did. And then on the next restart, I pushed the #5 past the #19. I was like, if we would have worked something out earlier, we wouldn’t have this problem”, Hamlin said.

The #11 JGR driver further added, “I was talking on the radio actually when we were stuck behind Kyle, that under the green flag, it was like, you know, we could draft past him as long as I know he is not going to try to pass me. I’ll slow down on the corner exit, we can link up down the straightaway and get a huge draft in, see if we can get around him. But it’s just so hard in those moments to play all that out and make it work right.”

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Further during the course of the podcast, Denny Hamlin disclosed his final strategy that led to the altercation with Kyle Larson.

What was Hamlin’s final stage strategy?

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Following a restart triggered by Alex Bowman’s spin-out, Denny Hamlin proceeded to snatch the lead from Kyle Larson. Executing an inside line overtake maneuver, the #11 JGR driver then pushed Larson further out, causing him to rub into the outer wall. Disclosing his pre-altercation strategy to overtake the HMS driver, Hamlin said, “We were both faster at the moment and I did the same thing he did is that, I have realized pretty quickly that, ok, I’m not gonna pass him cause he’s aero blocked me. Go up high and then you pull down low, you know, pretty standard mile and a half aero blocking.”

He further added, “And like we’re not gonna get around realistically unless he hits traffic or there’s a late race restart, that’s the only way. So, I backed off and then I backed Truex off with me to just like chill out and make another run maybe later in the race. We were killing our front tires so bad that we just chilled. Restart happened and all hell broke loose.”

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What are your thoughts on Denny Hamlin’s strategy? Let us know in the comments.