Even though he’s the most senior driver at Joe Gibbs Racing right now, Denny Hamlin probably didn’t set a good example of leadership and seniority when he ranted against Christopher Bell at Dover. But if Hamlin is to be believed, it wasn’t what it seemed like.
Yes, Hamlin said what he said to his own teammate.
However, the reason had less to do with his anger on Bell for not letting him pass and more with the frustration of having to pass the same cars instead of fighting up front for far more important things.
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Denny Hamlin comes clean on his R-rated rant against Christopher Bell
In a recent episode of his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin opened up on the real reason why he lost his temper while trying to pass his teammate during the race.
“It’s just really hard to win, it’s hard to win which is why early in the race FOX is playing my in-car of me telling Christopher Bell, ‘Get the f**k out of the way.’ A lot of that was because I was so frustrated that I went from damn near winning the stage and I’m all over William (Byron) to beat him in the stage and then I come out 8th in the next pit stop,” he described.
He claimed he passed a few cars, got up to Bell, and saw him sliding up in the mid-corner as he tried to pass him. But Hamlin added he should’ve known Bell was “just trying to keep his position.” “I was just venting at the time,” Hamlin said.
“I wasn’t as mad at him as I was just at the scenario why am I back here again and I gotta go make another three wide move and I gotta pass the same damn racecars again which I just passed which is why I’m leading the series by a billion on quality passes evidently, per NASCAR,” he remarked.
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Hamlin opens up on the “rough patch” with his pit crew
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The veteran, even though he claimed his team will “work it out,” that he’s been blessed with “really good pit crews” throughout his career, pointed out how the last two years have been “a very rough patch” for him in that regard.
“I don’t know how many races we’ve lost by just not being able to control the race that is come in first, come out first or just come out second or third. Just not these big catastrophic failures that are 20 seconds … you can’t overcome it,” Hamlin elaborated.
“You just can’t overcome it.”
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Coming back to his recent pit stop mishap at Dover, Hamlin thanked God there were only 8 cars on the lead lap during the last pit stop. “If there was 26 on the lead lap we would’ve finished in the 20s again,” he claimed, something which could’ve led to another rant from Chopper.