It has been almost a week since the race at Pocono took place, and so did the controversial 50th victory of Denny Hamlin, but the incident is still making rounds in the mouths of NASCAR enthusiasts. The incident faced severe backlash from the fans, who hurled boos and even flipped the bird at the driver.
However, the No. 11 Toyota driver brushed off all the allegations. He also emphasized the fact that he never made contact with Larson; rather, it was the aerodynamics of the car that played a role in shoving Larson into the wall.
This is not the first time that a driver has pulled such an action on a track in order to settle scores or to make a winning pass and secure a podium finish in the race. A similar incident occurred in Daytona and was initiated by none other than Dale Earnhardt Jr. In the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download, the former Cup Series driver divulged the itineraries of the incident.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. draws a comparison to the Denny Hamlin incident.
The incident between Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin occurred with just seven laps left in the race, and both drivers were driving tight. At Turn 1, a small tap from the Toyota driver sent Larson to the wall, putting an end to a favorable finish or perhaps a victory for the HMS driver.
In lieu of the incident and the reactions that the NASCAR enthusiasts had exhibited, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the latest episode of his podcast, brought back the memories of one such embarrassing incident from a race at Daytona. Speaking to his co-host Mike Davis, the former Cup Series driver revealed, “It was 2008 or 2010, we got a really fast car, rain is coming, and we lost a lap because of a battery issue or something and I am racing Brian Vickers for the Lucky Dog and I know I had gotta go ahead of him, we could have wrecked any minute.”
“Everybody racing toward the rain, so the intensity is high and this was also during our moment, during a time frame, there was really no defined understanding of when you might get a black flag for going below the line. It was almost Caveman of NASCAR looked and you are below the line and you got a black flag, they didn’t care how you got there, they just saw you down there, that’s wrong.”
“So I gotta run off the corner on Brian, he comes down on the racetrack, like I am not going below the line buddy and he forces me below the line. You took my spot and, you pushed me down the track I am going back up, if you don’t move I am sorry. So drive up the race track turning it filled with a crash and obviously, I felt horribly little or no remorse for that ever since,” Junior added.
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The incident was surely harrowing in nature and could have turned out to be fatal, however, the co-owner of JR Motorsports was far from taking responsibility for the crash.
Dale Jr. said, “And I told him on the phone and he is like what the hell, and I am like you ran me below the line, I am coming back up to the racetrack to get back in line or get back on the track under you, force me down, move, move up, you want me to lift to get behind you, that is not how racing works […]”
“Even the fans of my career for a point did not really understand why I was acting and why I did that that was something in approval, embarrassed but I still have no problem with it,” Junior concluded.
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This incident surely does not need to be justified, as they often involve innocent drivers and are in no way related to the rivalry that has brewed between them. These overarching ambitions often turn out to be detrimental to the driver, creating a blemish on his image.