It has been an eventful couple of weeks for Denny Hamlin. Final week, he discovered himself in a feud along with his personal teammate after wrecking Ty Gibbs throughout the NASCAR Cup Sequence race at New Hampshire. This week, it wasn’t a teammate who was mad at him, however his personal worker.
Denny dominated a lot of the race at Kansas Speedway, however suffered energy steering points late within the race. In the meantime, Bubba Wallace, who drives for 23XI Racing, a staff owned by Denny and Michael Jordan, struggled throughout the first half of the race earlier than discovering one thing in stage 2 to make his automobile higher. Bubba was main the race coming to the white flag, however a warning flag flew resulting from a weird wreck involving Zane Smith.
On the following restart, Bubba began from the highest spot, with teammate Tyler Reddick behind him and Christopher Bell to his outdoors. Denny, in the meantime, restarted in sixth place, however managed to sneak via to problem Bubba for the lead on the ultimate lap. Because the automobiles went into flip 3, Denny received tight and slid up the observe, placing Bubba’s automobile into the wall, permitting Chase Elliott to go them each and win the race.
After the race, Bubba was clearly not joyful in regards to the transfer from Denny, and to make issues extra awkward, Denny can also be his boss. Because the automobiles made their approach again to pit street, Bubba held his center finger out the window to point out his frustration, and he additionally had some harsh phrases for Denny on the radio: “He’s a f—ing douche.”
In his postrace interview, Bubba appeared to have calmed down somewhat, however nonetheless expressed his frustration with Denny: “He’s a dumb–s for that transfer for certain. I don’t care if he’s my boss or not.” As Bubba Wallace mentioned, “To actually have a shot on the win with the best way we began, you possibly can’ve fooled me. I respect the staff. Two years in the past, I’d in all probability say one thing dumb… he’s a dumbass for that transfer for certain. I don’t care if he’s my boss or not.”
Denny addressed the incident on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, and did not apologize to Bubba: “In the event that they’re wanting an apology, they’ll flip off now… I’m racing for the win, and I positively gained’t apologize for racing for the win. On Sunday I’m the motive force. The individual within the 11 automobile is the motive force. That’s the place the disconnect comes from, is that individuals count on me to be a special individual. They count on me to be the man with the 23XI shirt on after I’m within the 11 automobile and that’s simply not attainable.”
Denny mentioned he raced Bubba precisely the identical as he would have raced anyone, and that when he is behind the wheel, he isn’t targeted on getting a win for 23XI. He additionally identified that he has much more time to win a championship as an proprietor than he does as a driver. With regards to Bubba flipping him off, Denny would not have an issue with it, so long as it stays on the observe: “If he have been to flip me off in 23XI because the automobile proprietor, we’d have employer-employee issues. However as a competitor, he’s flipping off the motive force of the 11. I don’t have a problem with that… Something directed to me as an proprietor, I will surely, definitely have exception to that.”
It is a distinctive scenario the place Denny is each Bubba’s boss and his competitor, and driving for a special staff. Denny has the added stress of getting by no means gained a NASCAR Cup Sequence championship, and he is within the final couple of years of his profession, so he is actually down to a few alternatives to take residence the ultimate trophy earlier than he retires. For Bubba’s sake, it is in all probability greatest if he would not strive flipping Denny off across the race store.
