Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson contacted each other during the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, which led to Larson going back and forth with his spotter Tyler Monn. On the Actions Detrimentalpodcast, Hamlin explained the reason for the contact late in the race.
“I don’t have time to be screwing with you here. I got to get clear,” Hamlin said. “You’re not going to hold me off, which means you’re not going to win the race. We just won’t give each other an inch to clear. And then off of Turn 4 the next lap, I run him up because I’m like ‘F*** this, dude. I gotta go. I can’t keep d***ing with you here. I got to run down this 45. We got water on the windshield.’”
Hamlin said he and Larson race close is they are “usually racing for a win and neither will give each other an inch.” The 43-year-old driver also said Larson was on “two tires which is a deficit, but he’s trying to outrun the 45 and he couldn’t quite get that pass finish but I was coming quickly. The ability of him to be able to hold me off in that scenario was going to be little to no percentage.”
After the contract, Larson got into it with Monn. “He runs you like that every time, you know why, because you let it happen,” Monn said.
“Shut the f*** up,” Larson replied.
Denny Hamlin reacts to Kyle Larson’s exchange with spotter
When Hamlin learned about the exchange between Larson and Monn, he sided with the 2021 Cup Series Champion. “I agree with Kyle Larson. Tyler should shut the f*** up,” Hamlin said. “Does he say that when Kyle squeezes guys up high? Probably not. You know, that’s the thing about spotters is that they are so biased to their guy, and that’s what they need to be at times. We’re racing for a win, there’s drops on our windshield.”
The Cup Series race in New Hampshire lasted for six hours due to a two-hour rain delay. Before the delay, Hamlin was in third place but ultimately suffered a P24 finish.
“Just need more time there,” Hamlin said after NASCAR dropped the reg flad during the race. “At this point, you’re kind of second-guess like, ‘Which lane did I choose? How do I approach the corners? How could I make up more time?’ It’s going to be a tall task for us to get back to the front with just a few green-flag laps, but we had a few good restarts and a few mediocre ones. Right now we’re third, so it’s frustrating.”
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