-
Denny Hamlin got some revenge on Ross Chastain late in the Pocono race when he put his rival into the wall.
-
Chastain took the high road saying he deserved it over earlier incidents.
-
Hamlin refused to declare it over, saying he would continue to race Chastain “hard.”
Denny Hamlin got a bit of revenge in NASCAR’s most contentious rivalry and then made it clear that he is not ready to put the hard feelings in the rearview mirror.
With 19 laps to go during Sunday’s NASCAR race at Pocono, Hamlin and Chastain were 1-2 during a restart following a yellow flag. The two cars were side-by-side in the first turn when Hamlin (11) slid up the track, making contact with Chastain (1), who then hit the wall and wrecked.
While the move by Hamlin was far from the most egregious wreck seen on a NASCAR track, the pair have a history of ugly incidents over the last year. Hamlin has been on the receiving end of most of them, and he was not going to give Chastain any extra room on the track.
Hamlin went on to win the race but was later disqualified after failing post-race inspection. Before that, Hamlin was asked if the move was intentional, and he didn’t say no.
“I mean, what did you want me to do?” Hamlin said. “What did you expect me to do? We got position on him, and he just ran out of racetrack.”
Hamlin also made it clear that the beef with Chastain was far from settled and vowed to continue racing him hard.
“I mean, we’re just going to keep racing hard until we get the respect back from these guys,” Hamlin said. “It’s not just that. We’ve been wrecked four times, twice while leading in the last 10 months. I’m at the end of it.”
The most recent came in Atlanta, when Chastain spun Hamlin late in the race as both were battling for the win.
[embedded content]
After that, Hamlin said he had reached his limit with Chastain.
“It’s just another unfortunate circumstance for him,” Hamlin said. “Everyone has different tolerance levels, and as you all know, I’ve reached my peak.”
During an earlier race in St. Louis, Chastain also got into the back of Hamlin, causing him to wreck. Hamlin was able to stay in that race and spent a large chunk of the rest of the day, making life miserable for Chastain.
[embedded content]
NBC commentator and retired NASCAR driver Kyle Petty defended the move by Hamlin at Pocono.
“I thought the 11’s move was an old-school move,” Petty said. “I’m going to give you just enough race track to wreck yourself. It was perfect. That’s how you get back at somebody.”
Chase Elliott, who was declared the winner after Hamlin and second-place finisher Kyle Busch were DQ’d, also defended Hamlin’s move.
“Honestly, I thought Denny was pretty nice about it,” Elliott said. “He did ride him up the track a little bit, but he still left him some room there on exit after it was all said and done. I thought, all things considered, he was pretty kind about what went on there.”
Earlier this season, Hamlin criticized younger drivers, in general, saying they are too aggressive and don’t respect other drivers.
“The newer, younger generation that came in, it just seems like they are more aggressive,” Hamlin said. “Now, more aggressive is fine, but I think it’s just, you could talk about a much bigger subject here of, like, just the lack of respect that people have for each other nowadays.”
He also noted that young drivers no longer have to fear consequences beyond being wrecked during a race.
“I think in the past, what happened is, you got wrecked or knocked out of the way, you’d get your front teeth knocked out,” Hamlin said. “Nowadays, crew members protect their guys, and it’s very corporate, very different sport than what it used to be. So these young guys feel like — and it’s not always young guys, us old veterans, we make our mistakes too — but they’re just more aggressive in thinking that, ‘Hey, the risk is worth the reward because the reward is winning. The risk is, eh, I might get a little backlash here and there, and I might have to worry about that guy wrecking me in the future.’ But people just think it’s worth it nowadays.”
After the most recent incidents, Chastain has taken the high road and candidly admitted that he deserved what was coming his way and that he needs to race better on the track.
“That’s something that’s been owed to me for a few months now,” Chastain said after the wreck on Sunday. “I’ve been owed that and probably some more for a few months now.”
When asked if the score was settled now, Chastain chuckled and said, “I don’t know.”
Read the original article on Insider