Hendrick Motorsports Star Defends Denny Hamlin Wrecking Him, Blames NASCAR Instead

In the NASCAR world, tension often runs high on the racetrack, and lately, there seems to have been a rise in the number of incidents. The incident between Denny Hamlin and Hendrick Motorsports star Alex Bowman at Pocono Raceway was just one out of many. However, it didn’t get as much attention as the incident between Hamlin and Kyle Larson did. Alex Bowman was running in P3 when he spun around and brought out the 9th caution of the race.

From the looks of it, it was too close to call it whether Hamlin’s #11 tapped Alex Bowman’s car from behind or not. However, Bowman immediately came on the team radio to say that “Denny wrecked him,” as reported by the commentators at Pocono Raceway.

In a recent interview ahead of the practice race at Richmond, Bowman was asked whether he has changed his opinion on having been spun by the JGR driver. And to the surprise of many, he actually had some interesting things to say.

Alex Bowman thinks it’s not as simple as just blaming a driver

Instead of putting the entire blame on Hamlin for spinning him around, Alex Bowman directed his frustration toward NASCAR. He talked about the complexities of modern-day NASCAR racing and how technical aspects in the next-gen cars might contribute to such incidents. When asked whether he has seen replays of the crash since last week and had any change in his opinion. Bowman said, “Oh, we got crashed with the air. I mean, that it’s just as easy to crash somebody with air as it is running into him. So that’s just racing, part of it, and just focus on being faster this weekend at Richmond and hopefully having a shot to win here.”

He continued when asked if crashing with air is being frowned upon for not having any control over it. “I mean you’re still turning the guy around. I was plowing tight and next thing I knew I was backward in the fence. So yeah, I mean that’s just part of it. I think I definitely went away some uh with this race car compared to the previous race car.”

Bowman also commented on Toyota’s ability to manipulate the air. He said, “I feel like the three manufacturers definitely manipulate air quite a bit differently than each other and the Toyota seems to be able to kind of manipulate that air more around the left rear of other cars than say I feel like I can. But um yeah just one of those things.”

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The pattern of in-race crashes and the strategies behind them have not gone unnoticed. Even Kyle Busch took a dig at the evolving dynamics in modern-day NASCAR.

Kyle Busch takes the example of Denny Hamlin & Kyle Larson and says there’s a “vicious cycle” in NASCAR

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During a conversation with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Kyle Busch spoke about the Hamlin-Larson crash and highlighted the shift in racing dynamics. He pointed out that while there may have been a chance for Denny Hamlin to race cleanly and side by side, the intense competition and closely matched cars make it challenging to maintain that approach.

Busch explained, “You have to mess up the guy that you’re racing that you’re around. You have to push him out of the group. You have to tension tight to make him get tight. Then you have to throw a side job on him to get in front of them and take it they’re like there’s all this just, it’s racing. It’s just a different form of racing, I don’t know whether you call it dirty or whether you call it greedy…” He expressed concern about a pattern he has observed in the younger generation of drivers, where the idea of aggressive racing seems to be gaining popularity.

“I’ve been seeing it a lot out of the younger generation. The kids and stuff like that coming up through the race and how they do it in ARCA. How they do it in the Truck Series. How they’re doing it in Xfinity. Now it’s come up to the Cup Series. It’s just this vicious cycle of how to race…” he added.

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What’s your take on the “air bubble” argument? And what do you think of Kyle Busch’s “vicious cycle of racing” take? Let us know in the comments below.