Rick Hendrick’s “$100,000” Employee Warned Against Bitter Kyle Larson Fallout After Expletive Filled Chew Out

The USA 301 at New Hampshire saw Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin made contact in the final lap. Larson was eyeing the lead, before Hamlin used him up exiting Turn 4. Many expected an exchange of words between two of NASCAR’s best drivers following this, but what we got was a heated back and forth between Larson and his spotter.

Larson and Hamlin butted heads on the track isn’t anything new. Just recently at Iowa, Hamlin a lap down at the time, ran into the HMS driver’s rear when he was leading. While their New Hampshire on-track skirmish certainly made news, what grabbed headlines was a heated radio conversation between Kyle Larson and his spotter. And let’s just say—Tyler Monn seems to have got on to Kyle Larson’s nerve. 

Kyle Larson’s spotter pushed a button

Poor weather had already made the race in New Hampshire challenging. And almost everyone was pushing to do their best. During the race’s final stage, Denny Hamlin used up the extra room in the middle, pushed Larson wide, and took away the second place. But the #5 driver didn’t really retaliate much. And this just triggered something in Tyler Monn, his spotter. And well, he didn’t hold back or mince his words.

During the yellow flag on lap 214, Monn gave Kyle Larson a reality check. He said, “He [Denny] runs you like that every time, you know why? Because you let that happen!” And what could one expect but a clawback from Larson himself? He wasn’t at all pleased with Monn’s agitated and aggressive comment, as he said, “Shut the f**k up.” What followed was awkward silence as the No. 5 radio went hush. Now, does this sound like just banter to you? Because to most, it didn’t, including another spotter. 

According to Brett Griffin, it didn’t really have that “buddies” aspect to it. Insiders Brett Griffin and Freddie Kraft said that throwing an F-bomb is actually not that uncommon and they do have such incidents happen. But, according to them, Larson’s reaction suggested that he didn’t take it lightly. Freddie Kraft noted that Larson “did not have the playful ‘shut up’ response.” Instead, it seemed like Monn had struck a nerve.

Brett Griffin particularly considered Monn’s actions risky. Speaking on the ‘Door Bumper Clear’ podcast on June 25, he said, “But if you’re not buddies and you really p****d him off right there because you’re insinuating he’s not a good enough driver. Hey, this is Kyle Larson, by the way. You know what I mean. I’m not going to say another guy’s name because people are so sensitive in the world today, but this could go spot off really quickly. You don’t want to deteriorate your relationship.”

But Griffin also mentioned that it could go both ways, recalling the time when something similar happened. He said he was seated beside Kevin Hamlin, the current spotter for Alex Bowman, years ago when something similar went down between Hamlin and Sprint Cup driver Clint Bowyer.

Hamlin was a spotter for Bowyer through the 2011 season. During an incident, Hamlin was unhappy at Clint Bowyer over something he said on the radio. He even went on to type a long message for Bowyer, according to Griffin.

Remembering his advice to his fellow spotter, Griffin said, “I told him a guy that makes 100 grand a year can’t text a guy that makes 10 million a year. You got to take your blows sometimes. He said ‘f**k that I ain’t taking.’ He hit send on the message, and I thought, well, this is going to go one of two ways: you’re going to either get Clint’s respect, or he’s going to tell you to f**k off.” At the end, Kevin Hamlin got Bowyer’s respect.

So the thing with Larson and Rick Hendrick’s $100,000 employee, Tyler Monn, could very well go both ways. As far as who is right and who isn’t in the story, Denny Hamlin himself has a take on this. 

Denny Hamlin gives a bold statement on spotters

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Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin may not be on the same page about everything, but Hamlin was there to support him after what went down between him and his spotter. He said, “I agree with Kyle Larson. Tyler should shut the f*** up.” According to Hamlin, Monn doesn’t say the same thing when Kyle Larson is squeezing guys up high. Hamlin didn’t pull back on his words and said, “You know, that’s the thing about spotters is that they are so biased to their guy, and that’s what they need to be at times.”

Hamlin confidently said that the HMS driver couldn’t catch up to him and hence he made the move. The JGR driver said that he was faster and that Kyle Larson’s two-tire strategy was really what set the premise for the incident.

He said in his podcast Action Detrimental, “So the reason that we make contact is because I’m like ‘I don’t have time to be screwing with you here.’ Like I got to get clear. You’re not going to hold me off, which means you’re not going to win the race. So we just won’t give each other an inch to clear. And then you know off of turn four, the next lap… I run him up because I’m like, ‘F** this dude…I can’t keep d*cking with you here. I got to run down this 45. We got water on the windshield.’”

As far as the rumors on rivalry go and if Larson and his team now take him as a rival, he simply doesn’t care. He said, “I don’t care whether they do or don’t.” In the end, none of the two ended up winning the race. Larson eventually recovered to seal a fifth-place finish, while Hamlin had a tough time with the wet weather tires and finished 24th, as rain pelted “The Magic Mile” track. 

It could be the heat of the moment got the better of Larson, as he was concentrating on recovering his position and didn’t want to engage in something that would take his attention away from the track. Still, do you think his actions were justified? Let us know in the comments.