While the NASCAR nation has a spanking new storyline at hand following last week’s drama at Pocono, there’s another key aspect of the sport that has taken a backseat, and that is racing etiquette. Speaking to the media ahead of Richmond, NASCAR’s own “bad boy” and two-time Cup Series champion, Kyle Busch, blasts his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, denouncing the age-old bump and runs tactic.
The outspoken driver then goes on to give an example, mentioning his past tangle with NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., back in 2008 and admitting his fault. Unlike the veteran, Hamlin, who just outright cleaned his hands as he deemed it “racing,” Rowdy,” doesn’t sugarcoat his words.
The Richard Childress Racing driver even pokes a subtle jab at Hamlin, taking us back in time and reminding us how Hamlin pulled off the exact move on him.
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“Rowdy” Kyle Busch gets brutally honest, admitting his slip with Dale Jr. as well as exposing Hamlin’s “whacky” move
Last week’s Cup Series race at 2.5 miles The Tricky Triangle had all the thrills and frills of a blockbuster. While the track saw packed stands with fans, coming out in record numbers since 2010, the race’s anti-climatic finish certainly was a bummer for many as Denny Hamlin once again pulled out his stand-out move to edge out his friend, Kyle Larson, to pick up his second win of the season while he racked up his 50th career win.
With the playoffs closing in, drivers are scrambling to make the most of the remaining races. While that has made the field aggressive and super competitive, respect and sportsmanship have certainly become secondary now with drivers like Hamlin hard-bent on winning rather than enjoying life in the fast lane. While the JGR veteran is now ranked third owing to his win, his former teammate, Busch, is not a fan of the driver’s recent work.
Speaking to the media ahead of his short-track race at Richmond this Sunday, the “Rowdy” chimed in with a resounding take about bump and run, and said; “Well, I mean the bump-and-run scenario – that might even be a worse cheap shot, you know?”
He fired shots at his former rival, Carl Edwards, mentioning their stint back in 2017. Then he went on to mercilessly double down on Hamlin, mentioning his incident with Dale Jr. here in Richmond back in 2008. Busch said, “Yeah, you flat-out run into the corner deeper than you know your car is going to stick and you use the guy in front of you as a brake, and that’s what happens in the bump-in-run sometimes.”
“My issue with (Dale Earnhardt) Jr. here in 2008 was we were racing, battling hard side-by-side, you keep inching into the corner a little bit deeper every single time and there’s going to be a time where you go over that limit and you slip, and that was me and made contact with him. That to me, like we were side-by-side for three laps, and it was kind of building up. It was going to be inevitable. But those are hard racing moments and those are moments in which you’re pushing a little bit more when you get side-by-side with somebody for the first chance and you just whack ‘em out. That’s not racing, that’s whacking,” said “Rowdy” Busch, who has been vocal about the lack of respect between drivers.
“He has done it a lot longer than 10 years” “Bad boy” Busch turns around to bite Denny Hamlin
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With so much drama on the track, bumping another driver to secure one’s position has now become sort of normal, with drivers like Denny Hamlin calling it racing. While the veteran has pulled off the identical move of leading his fellow drivers into the wall time and again, Kyle Busch isn’t much of a fan.
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Astonishingly, months after his “drivers are like elephants” rant, the 38-year-old vividly recalls the 2010 All-Star race at Lowes Motor Speedway, where Hamlin did what he did last week to Larson. Busch said, “You don’t want to get stuck side by side with somebody and allow a third-place guy to kind of come into the fray and make it a three-way battle so you want to disperse that guy as fast as you can and the easiest way to do that is run them out of the groove.”
“Whether that’s dirty or not it kind of is what it is but Denny(Hamlin) might be a little remiss and forgotten about him doing the same move to me back in 2010 or 11 at the All-Star race and put me in the fence off of (turn) 2 so he has done it a lot longer than 10 years”, Kyle Busch further added.
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With all eyes on Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, the community is all geared up for a 0.75-mile short track race at Richmond. Will Larson get his revenge?
WATCH THIS STORY: Kyle Busch makes bold comments about his chances at the regular season championship