Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin have engaged in a few dustups on the racetrack recently, especially during Sunday’s race at New Hampshire.
Racing near the front of the field as they usually do, the two banged doors for multiple laps. At one point, Larson’s spotter, Tyler Monn, radioed to him, “He runs you like that every time, you know why, because you let it happen.” Larson didn’t appreciate those words from Monn, and promptly told him to silence himself.
“Shut the f*** up,” Larson told Monn.
Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic discussed Larson and Hamlin’s on-track battle during the latest episode of “The Teardown,” and agreed that Hamlin has certainly gotten the best of Larson over the years.
“He ends up telling his spotter to shut the f up when he got kinda muscled up around by Denny Hamlin,” Gluck said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of history there with Larson and Hamlin. It’s a sore spot with the 5 team, isn’t it the stat there of all the 1-2 finishes those guys have had, Larson has never come out on top of those 1-2 finishes with Hamlin. So, he’s always seeming to get the wrong end of it, and it sounded like Tyler Monn basically said, ‘You know why that happens, it’s because you let him push you around.’ And Larson said, ‘Shut the f up.'”
Denny Hamlin shoots down idea he has rivalry brewing with Kyle Larson
Bianchi argued that since Larson hasn’t shown any resistance against Hamlin to this point, it feels as if Hamlin knows he can capitalize off it, and thus continues to use him up on the racetrack.
“Kyle has been on the wrong end of this a few times and I don’t wanna speak for Denny Hamlin, but it feels like Denny knows like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna capitalize. I know you’re not gonna get me back, I’m gonna eat you up.’ And that’s how it is all the time,” Bianchi said. “We hear this all the time with rookies like if you don’t stand up for yourself, you’re gonna get bulled over. And if you’re Denny Hamlin or someone else, why wouldn’t you not be inclined to rough Kyle Larson up? There’s nothing in Kyle Larson’s racing DNA that says he’s gonna come back and rough you up in return.”
Hamlin did discuss his latest run-ins with Larson during Monday’s “Actions Detrimental,” chalking it up to two competitors not giving each other an inch.
“It’s not [a rivalry],” Hamlin said. “I like Kyle and listen, just watch the race and we all do this to each other all the time. I don’t know why there’s an emphasis, is it because we’re up front all the time? Maybe that’s it, but the 5 and 12 [Ryan Blaney] ran each other up the racetrack. It’s racing, it’s short-track racing — get over it.”
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