After a decade of driving together in the NASCAR Cup Series, Denny Hamlin & Kyle Larson have developed a complex relationship. The rivals share a surprising, off-track friendship. Yet, on it, the script could flip at the slightest sight of some traded paint. Once tied for the regular season points lead, and now only for race wins, these frenemies collided a few too many times at Nashville.

And we all know what happens when that #5 car and #11 tangle. It sparks the debate on whether they are racing hard for the championship or if it’s a sign of simmering tensions between two of the most trending drivers on the 2024 NASCAR roster instead. But, as it seems, an ‘out of control’ Kyle Larson has irked Denny Hamlin to the point where he may very well be the most dangerous, especially around his championship advances.

Denny Hamlin hints at escalating tensions with Kyle Larson

With the tire smoke settling, Joe Gibbs’ driver Hamlin finished P12 as Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson ended his race four spots above in P8. But as Joey Logano made headlines with his debut win at Nashville Superspeedway, Hamlin & Larson did so for some debatable on-track actions. Most might remember that second overtime wreck that snatched away a Music City symphony from Ross Chastain, as Larson attempted to “get some clean air off the nose” pushing Denny’s bumper and incidentally clipping an adjacent-running Chastain into the wall. Or when Larson ran out of fuel on the very next restart to slow down, leading the outside line, with Kyle Busch in tow. This incident would result in the #8 losing control and crashing out on a DNF after making contact with the #5’s bumper.

But before that happened, as Christopher Bell won Stage 2, Larson & Hamlin received major attention for “racing hard” once again. Denny elaborated on those happenings in detail when talking to Jared Allen and Tyler Reddick on the latest release of the Actions Detrimental podcast. His co-host Allen brought bearings of the souring sentiments when he probed Denny Hamlin, asking, “I want to know Denny, if there’s any part of you that thinks, if you raced Kyle differently last week, and if his spotter didn’t make the comments he made, that you would have won yesterday and there wouldn’t have been multiple overtime finishes. Because of the way he raced you into one which caused the wreck with Ross?”

Last weekend in New Hampshire, Larson’s spotter Tyler Monn suggested over the #5 car’s radio that Hamlin aggressively raced his driver “every time” because Larson “let it happen.” In response, Kyle Larson shut down his spotter with an emphatic statement: “Shut the f*** up.” Owing to that exchange and its viral fallout, Allen’s question to Hamlin is fairly credible.

Now, as for racing Larson “differently,” amidst calls for a resurging rivalry, Denny Hamlin told his co-host, “I just think Kyle was out of control, you know. Should I have been thinking that his thought process post-race, he’s like, ‘Yeah, I was trying to knock the 11 up the racetrack, and then that way I could get clean air.’ Well, that would have wrecked the #1 as well, because the one’s on the outside of me. So I think he was okay with just crashing whoever was in front of him.”  

Allen then asked his podcast partner if he didn’t think Larson’s aggression during that Chastain incident was only on display because the #5 was trying to get past the #11 in a late-race situation. To which Hamlin gave a controversial reply, which went exactly like, “Yeah, but the stakes keep getting raised because I got hit early in the race, and he knocked me in the #22 up the racetrack and then the end of stage two. So again, if he’s b*tt hurt over a lap that happened at the end of Loudon that he wouldn’t give me an inch to clear, which is now three instances in a row. Now I feel like, okay I need to respond. I’m in this for the Long Haul. I’m fine with the way we’re racing, and it’s going to keep going and it’s going to keep getting raised.” 

As Denny Hamlin pointed out other incidents earlier in the race, Allen asked Hamlin if it was a renewed “rivalry.” Hamlin didn’t seem too happy about that question and announced, “Sure if you want to call it one.” That caught even Tyler Reddick’s ears, who said, “finally calling it one.” This comment was made by the #45 because of Hamlin’s earlier statement that denied any rivalry between Larson and himself.

Aiming to retract his hastily made remark, Denny covered it up hilariously: “I don’t care what you want to call it… I’m just saying. I mean, you (Allen) usually are the one rationaling that well you know, this or that…” The cast of Actions Detrimental did, however, promise to “add a clip into this” about Denny Hamlin saying, “It’s not a rivalry.” Regardless, the message was clear, as he wished to explain himself further.

Will the Rivalry Continue in Chicago?

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Before rains and tussles in Nashville, the duo bumped and banged a little in New Hampshire. Before that went down, both drivers made headlines following a major wreck involving Daniel Suarez at Iowa’s Cup Series debut. The run-ins appear to be turning into a weekly affair and it has taken the NASCAR world by surprise, albeit not so much. As Hamlin explained, “I mean Loudon happened because when we came off turn four, out of the blue he was running up against my right rear, like grinding up against the side of my car. Just like he did with Kyle Busch, and so I took exception to that and I’m like, what the f***.”

Equating those perspectives with Larson’s seemingly renewed aggression, Denny Hamlin reiterated, putting into perspective his most recent mentality surrounding the whole issue, “And so I’m trying to go places, I’m faster than him. I’m trying to catch the #45… I’m on better tires than all of them. Rain’s coming, so I squeeze him up into the third lane. Didn’t run him in the fuzz, I mean at all. He never got in the fuzz, and so my opinion is the same. Still, that was hard racing and I took exception to getting run into on the straightaway… And then again there was three or four instances this race. So again, this will keep going…”

However, Hamlin truly stoked the fire when he said, “It will not just keep going. It will continue to get raised because hearing that he was going to be content with just knocking us up into the #1. You know, that changes the game certainly at the end.”

On a relatively more positive note, Allen shaped up another question regarding Tyler Monn: “I just feel like those comments that his spotter made last week were…”  But before he could see the question through, Hamlin cut him off with his own little anecdote. “I saw the spotter at a bar in Nashville. I told him to shut the f*** up in person too,” mused Denny comedically. And as he explained later, they were all out together; it was “all good” between him and Kyle Larson’s spotter during the Ally 400 weekend.

The aftermath, on the other hand? We await its true gravity to unfold on July 7th’s second annual Grant Park 165 on the streets of Chicago, promising to be another barnburner. Hopefully, Larson & Hamlin don’t race each other too hard around and about the confines of Downtown.