DENNY HAMLIN MAKES FEELINGS ON KYLE LARSON CLEAR AFTER NASCAR INCIDENTS

Denny Hamlin has weighed in on his on-track battles with Kyle Larson after tensions flared again during the Ally 400. The pair have gone wheel the wheel several times in recent weeks, with the latest on-track battle resulting in Hamlin's crew chief, Chris Gabehart, yelling at his driver not to retaliate against the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

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That came after Hamlin and Larson had battled hard at the end of the second stage in Nashville. Hamlin looked set to win after he hunted down Ross Chastain for the lead in the closing stages only for an Austin Cindric spin to bring out the caution flags.

That brought Larson, running in third, behind Hamlin for the green-white-checkered flag. Larson then attempted to run inside Hamlin only to collect Chastain and wreck the No.1 car.

After the race, Hamlin was inevitably asked about his recent on-track battles with Larson. And while the two fierce competitors rarely give each other an inch, he again reiterated what he has consistently said publicly - that he has no problem with the way the No.5 car races.

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"I thought it was fine," Hamlin told NBC Sports. "We were messing around with each other like we were last week. We were battling for third right there on the stage and he ran me up, which was all good, I ran him up last week a little bit.

"On the restart with the 22, 22 was mad at me but the 5 tried to clean us out there, and I think he tried to clean us out at the end there then got the 1. So it all worked out."

Larson was also asked if he was trying to send a message to Hamlin when he raced him into the first overtime restart. "Just trying to race for the win," he explained.

"Was hoping to kind of get him out of shape and get me some clean air to the bottom. I knew being second row you're kind of in trouble so was just trying to do what I could to get him washed off the bottom.

"I ended up getting myself tight and into Ross. Like I said I hate that for Ross. Just doing what I thought I needed to do to try to get myself a decent opportunity to get some clean air and get myself a shot to win."

Despite having no problems with his battles with Larson, Hamlin help but be slightly frustrated at a win that got away as he ultimately had to pit for fuel and fell down the pack, eventually coming back to finish 12th.

Hamlin said: "I was surprised it lasted that many green and white checkers, honestly. It certainly stinks being about 15 seconds from a win at the end, then 10 seconds from the win at the end then we finished 12th, but that's just part of it.

"That's NASCAR Cup Series racing. Once you get to one of thees green white checkers, it's just going to be chaos. Everyone's just going to run into each other, and it's just part of it.

"You know that there's multiple green-white checkers coming, and certainly when we're strategising for a race we can't really predict for that. We just needed Cindric not to spin out the first time and this would've been over, but it's just part of racing."

2024-07-01T03:22:42Z dg43tfdfdgfd