Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano got into each other on Lap 123 of Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, prompting Logano to give Hamlin the bird as he drove by him after the next caution came out.
Logano fell from fourth to 15th as a result of the contact with Hamlin and was clearly agitated about it. But during the rain delay midway through Stage 2, Hamlin attempted to squash their beef via text. Logano, however, wasn’t trying to hear any of it.
Hamlin recalled the text exchange during Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast.
“He responded quickly by saying, ‘F*ck you, look at the SMT.’ He’s like, ‘Have you looked?’ And I said, ‘No, but I know when I was hitting you and when I got hit. So, I’ll go back and look at it, but certainly I can tell you that I started to release off of you and I got pummeled into the corner.’ I was there,” Hamlin said. “It all worked out for him. He had a great day.”
Logano’s day got better from there, as he secured his first checkered flag of the season after a record five overtime restarts. Hamlin had the fastest car in the field at the end of the race but couldn’t survive the number of green-white-checkered attempts that took place due to fuel and was eventually forced to pit and surrender the lead. Hamlin did enough to pick up a P12 finish.
Denny Hamlin describes Lap 123 incident with Joey Logano
As for his beef with Logano, Hamlin doesn’t feel he’s at any fault.
“Joey was pissed at me, so I text Joey during the break and was like, ‘Bud, get your facts straight. I got jammed into you.’ And he’s like, ‘Have you looked at SMT?’ And I’m like, ‘I lifted before you.’ Because then the team tried to explain to him, the spotter said, ‘Hey, Joey, I know the 11 was pushing you, but you got ping-ponged up the track because of the 5 [Kyle Larson],'” Hamlin said. “And he’s like, ‘Ah, I don’t buy it.’ … I tried to explain to Joey like, I was trying to do you a favor and not split you three wide because I knew he was on older sh*t anyway.
“So, I was like I’m gonna help you get going here. And then I’ll pass you once we get to the corner. I lifted before Joey by the way in the SMT data, but as soon as I lifted, I got nailed. And it nailed me into the 5. And then the 5 drove into me and knocked both of us up the track. These things happen. Again, we’re in a cocoon and Joey doesn’t wanna hear it. He just knows that I got knocked up the track, who was it? It was the 11, f*ck you. Hopefully, he feels a lot better now because he backed into this one for sure. It’s just part of it. He was just an innocent victim of the 5 overdriving into the corner into me.”
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