The rivalry between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson has been the subject of great debate following another afternoon full of incidents between the two during the Ally 400 in Nashville.
Once again, neither wheelman was happy with the other following Sunday’s race, and Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi spoke on the matter during the latest episode of The Teardown for Dirty Mo Media. The NASCAR insiders had some fascinating takes, believing this is far from over between Hamlin Larson.
“So I mentioned Hamlin and Larson, obviously they had a little thing again. Actually, it looked like, when they lined up on the front row, one of those overtimes, I was like, ‘Man, they’re both not going to finish this race.’ … I thought they might take each other out. … I would’ve liked to see them race it out, because I think that would’ve been another chapter of their rivalry. But even so, Hamlin lost his cool there, and wanted to bump him or something afterwards,” Gluck explained. “He kind of downplayed it, in his television interview, at least, but I think, it seems like, Larson, despite him not liking what Tyler Monn said in the moment last week, I think Larson has taken that to heart and said, ‘I’m going to race Denny really hard.’ I think Denny is racing Larson really hard, and they’re going to keep doing it. … This is two of the best guys, going to be going at it. This is not the end of the chapter.
“When they compete for wins, they’re going to be having it out, and they’re going to run into each other. They’re not going to give each other an inch. I can totally imagine, the Brickyard 400 is probably going to come down to these two guys. Late race restart, pinching each other down going into Turn 1. They’re going to wreck, and third-place is going to win or whatever.”
Throughout the season, Larson and Hamlin have been the most consistent wheelmen in the sport, and Bianchi is of the same opinion as Gluck, adding that the beef between the two drivers is a fantastic thing for NASCAR as a whole.
“I think it’s fantastic. I think NASCAR needs this. NASCAR is better when it has great rivalries. You look at the history of NASCAR, it has thrived when you’ve had two drivers, competing for wins on the regular, being the best, competing for the championship, and they are slugging it out. Whether it was Petty versus Pearson, or Earnhardt versus everybody, Earnhardt versus Gordon. This is the best thing, and this is what you need,” Bianchi stated. “You’ve got two of NASCAR’s most recognizable names, across the spectrum, and you’ve got arguably the best all-around driver in Kyle Larson. You’ve got Denny Hamlin, who’s very much embracing the black hat, and willing to be that villain, and Larson is very much the man of the people, and people are really supporting him. This is what you need. This is picture perfect.
“Plus, you’ve got Chevy versus Toyota. You’ve got two of NASCAR’s top teams, who are competing for supremacy. This is everything that you want. All of the juicy storylines that you want, you look at it and say, you want to sell NASCAR, you want to make NASCAR resonate with the casual fan, or maybe non-casual fan, have these guys, two great drivers, Hall of Famers, all-time greats go at it, hell yeah, this is what you want. If you’re NASCAR, you’re wanting this. You’re rooting for this to happen.”
Still, Larson and Hamlin have been reluctant to officially call their on-track anger a rivalry, as the pair used to be pretty good friends. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a rivalry between the two, as Bianchi elaborated.
“You don’t need to hate someone in a rivalry,” Bianchi said. “I mean, Earnhardt and Gordon didn’t hate each other. They were business partners. They respected each other. You don’t always need hate to manifest a rivalry. Rivalries can just be two greats going at it, competing for wins, and I think that you can have a mutual respect rivalry. … There is a friendship there.
“Whether that friendship is going to remain as strong as it once was, who knows, but at least there’s an underlying friendship there, to kind of help offset any bad blood, where we’ve had rivalries in this sport where two guys just don’t like each other, on the track, off the track, and it’s manifested in a much different way.”
At the least, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson have added some extra spice to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign. Who casts the next stone remains to be seen, but it’s hard to call their beef anything less than a rivalry at the moment.
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