Denny Hamlin Apr 8, 2023; Bristol, Tennessee, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin (11) during the heat race qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Larson finished 35th in this past Sunday’s race on the Bristol Dirt Track. Larson was one of the favorites to win, but Stage 3 was a disaster for him. Larson spun out at the start of the stage and then went into the wall after contact with Ryan Preece.

Preece denied it was payback, but Larson felt it was. Larson cut off Preece, who went into the wall earlier in the race, but Preece continued. Preece wasn’t happy on his radio and flipped off Larson right after the incident. Fast forward, after Preece hit Larson, Larson appeared to come down to try and wreck Preece and ended up wrecking himself.

One person who studied the crash was Denny Hamlin. Hamlin was recently penalized for making contact with Ross Chastain and then said he ran into him on his podcast the next day. NASCAR penalized Hamlin 25 points and $50,000 for the incident but cited Hamlin’s comments as the reason to penalize him. Hamlin lost his appeal last Thursday to get the penalty overturned.

Hamlin spoke about the Larson/Preece incident on Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin. Even though Larson is one of his best friends, Hamlin placed the blame on Larson. While pointing out that he doesn’t think anyone deserves to be penalized, Hamlin noted that it looked similar to his incident with Chastain and wonders if NASCAR will be consistent.

“I mean, I watched it, and it looks like Kyle Larson, this is what he does. Kyle is one of my best friends but at this point, I have to call Kyle a little bit. Kyle is one of those drivers that puts you in a spot where you have to lift? Raise your hand if this sounds familiar? He’s done it to me a few times on a road course. He’ll get tired of me contesting my position, so he’ll just run me off into the grass. He’ll just say, ‘Alright, well you either can lift or you’re going through the grass over there.’ And I think that he wanted to get clear of Preece, so he just gassed it up and said, ‘Alright, well I’m coming up and you can lift or go into the fence.’ Preece didn’t lift, he got drove into the fence, so of course Preece is ******.

“And so, later on in the race, he crowded Larson up the track. Looked very familiar, looked very very familiar to Phoenix. But that’s what racing is. I’m not saying either one of them deserved to be penalized, but it depends. Are we gonna use the precedent or not?

“Larson’s in the wrong here. I just, Preece stood his ground. He wasn’t gonna take getting crowded. Wasn’t gonna take being put to a decision of lift or be put in the fence. And so when he got back to Larson, he gave him the business a little bit. And Larson’s mad because he’s like, ‘Well hey, it was an hour and a half ago, can’t you just stop being a kid and get over it?’ Larson wouldn’t get over it. I have raced with Larson, he holds grudges when he gets back to you, there’s no question.

“So I think, Larson came in this weekend with not a very good attitude. We saw it in his pre-race comments. Again, I’m really good friends with the guy, but each person has to be called out individually. This was not Ryan Preece’s fault.

“Then you can argue all you want, but then Kyle drove right down the race track on the backstretch and try to door the **** out of the #41 and ended up wrecking himself in the process.”

The thing Hamlin described Larson of doing is something many racing greats do. Sometimes, the art of passing someone is putting that person in a position where they either have to back off and let you by or wreck both of you. That takes some faith in the other driver backing off and not ruining their race, but many times it works. Although, as Larson learned the hard way, sometimes that comes back to bite you.

[Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin]

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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