NASCAR: Denny Hamlin forgot one key piece of information in his post-race interview

By Asher Fair | Nov 13, 2017

AVONDALE, AZ - NOVEMBER 12: Denny Hamlin, driver of the /

In Denny Hamlin’s post-race interview, the NASCAR Cup Series driver seemed to have forgotten one key fact in regard to his debacle with Chase Elliott.

After Denny Hamlin spun out Chase Elliott two weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway when Elliott was leading with just over two laps to go and it appeared he was set to win his first career NASCAR Cup Series race and advance to his first career Championship 4, the question was not if Elliott would get back it Hamlin; it was when.

Last week at Texas Motor Speedway, no revenge was to be had. Hamlin and Elliott both stayed out of trouble, finishing in 3rd and 8th place, respectively.

However, that was not that case in the Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona on Sunday. Late in the race Elliott and Hamlin were battling hard, and Elliott shoved him into the wall, albeit not extremely hard.

This caused Hamlin, who had dominated the race up until that point, to lose a few positions on the track before somewhat recovering to maintain his spot over Brad Keselowski, who he needed to be ahead of to have a chance at making it into the Championship 4. However, he then had a tire go down as a result of the collision with Elliott, and that sent him crashing into the wall, ending his race and his championship hopes.

Here are Hamlin’s comments about how Elliott raced him after the race had concluded and Matt Kenseth had won.

"“Each person had their own opinion of how they do things, and it just proved to the people that thought I was a bad guy that he would do the exact same thing in the same circumstances, so, I mean, you know, it’s just part of racing. I got into him and he chose to retaliate, so I’m in the garage and that’s the way it is.”"

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Hamlin seemed to forget one key piece of information, however. He was the one who started the whole debacle by not racing but wrecking Elliott at Martinsville to begin with. The only reason Elliott did what he did was clearly because of what happened at Martinsville! Need proof?

Elliott made it a point after the race to say that he races others how they race him, and he proved it not only by racing Hamlin hard, but by racing clean against other drivers who have not put into the wall, such as eventual race winner Matt Kenseth. And Kenseth even overtook Elliott for the lead with just a handful of laps remaining to prevent him from making it into the Championship 4.

Here are Elliott’s comments.

"“A wise man once told me that he’ll race guys the way they raced him with a smile on his face. That’s what I did today. I raced him the way he raced me. That’s the way I saw it. That’s about all I have to say.’’"

But, as you would expect from Denny Hamlin, a guy who thinks NASCAR drivers deserve NFL and NBA player pay because of the risks involved while making no mention of the risks taken by people such as soldiers, firefighters, policemen, EMT’s, paramedics and other first responders, who make pennies compared to what NASCAR drivers make, he opted to ignore the facts and instead rely solely on his emotions to make yet another ridiculous claim.

For a guy who says he doesn’t care about being booed and embraces it more so than hates it, Hamlin sure tried hard to get some fans back with that line about proving that he wasn’t the “bad guy” by comparing him to new the new fan favorite Elliott . Based on the crowd’s reaction to the whole sequence of events starting back at Martinsville and continuing at Phoenix, he failed — and in an epic fashion.

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Aside of Denny Hamlin fans, it would be a challenge to find someone out there who is disappointed that Hamlin isn’t in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida next Sunday. His recent comments and actions demonstrate why.