An incident in overtime at Phoenix Raceway knocked Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain out of the top 10 and well below the top 20. Now, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry has revealed that he purposely fenced his fellow Cup Series driver.
Hamlin provided an explanation during the March 13 episode of his podcast, “Actions Detrimental.” Hamlin said that he had the intention of getting the best finish that he possibly could on two tires. However, his car “was plowing” and he was seconds away from losing several spots to cars with four tires. He decided to turn his attention to Chastain.
A look at #NASCAROvertime for and pic./P3TrT6Yl07
— NASCAR () March 13, 2023
“My crew chief told me that there were 18 cars on the lead lap,” Hamlin said. “At that point, I said, ‘All right, well, I’m probably — live looking at a picture — I’m probably running sixth or seventh. I’m about to get passed by everybody behind me who’s on fresh tires. I’m about to finish in the mid-teens.’
“And I said, ‘You’re coming with me, buddy.’ It wasn’t a mistake. No, it wasn’t a mistake. I let the wheel go, and I said, ‘He’s coming with me.’”
Hamlin Considered His Move Before Making It
GettyRoss Chastain (front) talked to Denny Hamlin (rear) after the Phoenix race.
There have been comments from Hamlin in the past year where he has talked about drivers needing to learn a lesson. Though he has shied away from intentionally spinning anyone out or exacting noticeable revenge. The reason is that he doesn’t want to cause any collateral damage.
“It’s difficult because at times people want me to react right away,” Hamlin continued. “But I don’t want to involve any other cars. I told you guys — privately, my friends — like, it’s difficult to be in a position where you can get back at a person and not involve an innocent bystander.
“It’s really hard to do because then you’ve got other people pissed at you because you’re doing something that affected their race when they had nothing to do with it. And I never wanted to do that, right?
“At Pocono, unfortunately, someone got caught up in that when Ross bounced back off the wall. But here, I saw we were the only people up …read more
Source:: Heavy.com