When Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin crashed during the Coca-Cola 600, everyone knew Hamlin would have something to say about that on his podcast.
Sure enough, despite what was said during the race, Hamlin had much to say about what happened on Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin. Recorded late Monday night, Hamlin chastised Elliott for what he felt was an intentional wreck, took on NASCAR fans who base their opinions on the drivers involved and called on NASCAR to be consistent in the wake of Bubba Wallace’s suspension last year.
After the episode posted, NASCAR announced a one race suspension for Elliott.
“I didn’t hit the #9,” Hamlin said. “He hit the wall. I squeezed him up there, no question about it. You could see fire coming out of my car. You can see telemetry, I’m slamming on the brakes to try to stop and get off of him to not make contact, but ultimately, he made contact with the wall because I forced him up there and then threw a hissy fit.
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“I’ve seen this with him in the past. When he got pissed off when Larson kind of drove him up in the fence at California. Larson’s leading the race at the end; he intentionally caused a caution there, trying to screw Larson over—his teammate. And then when Harvick and him got into it, he came in, ‘Where’s Harvick? I’m going to help my teammate out.’ Blocked Harvick so Kyle Larson could win. This is just; this is ********.”
Hamlin then talked about Elliott’s fans, specifically those who change their view of a certain issue depending on if their driver is involved.
“I don’t mind Chase Elliott fans,” Hamlin said. “Some of them are sane, most of them are not. Even when you got the Dawsonville Pool Room saying, ‘Oh boy, we need a substitute driver next week,’ you probably know you’ve ****** up.”
A little later in the podcast, Hamlin went further.
“Dude, these fans. Golly, they drive me crazy sometimes because they’re so two-faced. And I look at specific instances, and I go back in their history, and they condone it when it goes on one side, and they ‘must suspend from NASCAR,’ when it’s on the other side. How can you be a fan and be that twisted to not recognize when your driver ****** up? Even myself, I know when I’m absolutely an idiot, made a stupid *** move. How can you not be that self-aware? I just don’t get it. Just call a spade a spade for once, so you gain a little bit of credibility. So they’re looking, they’re like, ‘Well, his car obviously must have been broke. He would never do that.’ Why? Has he not before? I mean, I’ve given you instances where he’s lashed out being like a kid.”
After the race, and before putting on the headphones, Hamlin posted Elliott’s SMT data on Twitter. To Hamlin, that proved that Elliott intentionally turned his steering wheel sharply to run into Hamlin and that his steering wasn’t broken when he hit the wall.
Hamlin then called on NASCAR to suspend Elliott, citing the need for consistency after Bubba Wallace was suspended last year for intentionally wrecking Kyle Larson. NASCAR did just that on Tuesday and suspended Elliott for this weekend’s race near St. Louis.
“In my opinion, he shouldn’t be racing next weekend because NASCAR set a precedent last year on this. if you want to quote Steve O’Donnell, he says, when they asked why did they suspend Bubba Wallace, he says, ‘Our actions were really specific to what took place on the race track, and we look at it on how that incident occurred. In our minds, that was a dangerous act. We thought that it was intentional, and it put other competitors at risk.’
“And by the way, as the car owner of Bubba Wallace, that was ******** too. I agreed with [the suspension]. That’s why I look at all the comments, I said it was ********. That is just so immature to right rear hook someone. it’s just childish, and I, it just ****** me off because you got to be better than that. I don’t give a **** what goes on in your head to think that that’s the right move to make. I don’t know.”
It’s hard to disagree with Hamlin here. I was admittedly on the fence at the time as to whether or not Wallace should’ve been suspended, but once he was, the precedent was set. If NASCAR didn’t suspend Elliott, it would’ve created major problems. It might not be a popular decision among Chase Elliott fans heading to Gateway, but it was the correct and necessary decision.
[Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin]
