The battle for the win between 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace and his own team owner, Denny Hamlin, in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Kansas Speedway has occupied many of the headlines this week, primarily because of the fact that both ended up losing out to Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott.
Hamlin tried to make the move for the win on Wallace in turn three of the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Kansas City, Kansas oval, and Wallace got into the wall. Hamlin also went high, and Elliott took the win away from both of them on the inside.
Wallace called his team owner a "f****** douche" and a "dumbass", and he also flipped him off in the race car on the cooldown lap.
But what the whole ordeal illustrated was something that a lot of NASCAR fans have doubted for the past several years.
Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace prove NASCAR fans wrong once and for all
Hamlin is racing his drivers, his own employees, the same way he races everyone else, and his drivers are racing him the way they race everyone else.
We spoke to both Hamlin and Wallace shortly after Wallace started competing for 23XI Racing in 2021, when he first had the opportunity to race against his team owner and Hamlin first had the opportunity to race against the very team he co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan.
Both of them were adamant that they would race each other like they do any other driver, and of course, their claims were doubted by a contingent of NASCAR fans.
Some chalked it up to them simply saying what they needed to say and giving the corporate-approved answers to avoid ruffling any furthers, either with sponsors, within their respective race teams, or both.
"I race them like I race anyone else," Hamlin said of his race team's drivers. "I mean, do you try to cut a break to them and let them in on a restart or something? Yes. If it's not a detriment to you, then you try to help. But if I'm going to win the race, which that's my goal, and them to finish in second and third, I have to do everything I can and take every advantage I can on the track."
He added to that response a little bit later on.
"There hasn't really been any conflict in the year and a half that we've been doing it," he said. "We've worked well together. We consider ourselves Toyota teammates with the JGR cars, so it's been a very, very good working relationship so far."
As for Wallace, he also made clear that there would be no differences.
"Nope! No, we had talked about that before," Wallace said. "They're out there trying to get a win, and we'll do anything that it takes. Obviously respectful of each other and watch what's going on. So yeah; we just gotta keep it going."
While they've battled on track before, we hadn't truly seen anything like we saw at Kansas on Sunday up until Sunday's race, with the stakes as high as they were and a round of 8 spot on the line for both drivers.
And believe it or not, both drivers backed it up in a key moment. Unfortunately for them, it ironically cost them both, but it did prove that they weren't making it up when they said what they said a few years ago; they both meant it.
Hamlin backed up his stance this week on his "Actions Detrimental" podcast, noting that when he's in the car, he's the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota – nothing more, nothing less.
Likewise, he had no issue with Wallace's fiery response to his move, because in that moment, it's clearly not how he feels about their employee/employer relationship; how he feels about Hamlin the driver is something totally different, and Hamlin acknowledged that that's okay.
It's not the first time someone has reacted angrily in the heat of the moment, and it's certainly not the first time Wallace has done so.
All things considered, both of them backed up what they've been saying for years, and given the fact that neither one of them is now locked into the round of 8, it's safe to say that they couldn't have picked a better time to prove that to the percentage of the NASCAR fanbase who once doubted their honesty.
Hamlin is set to enter the round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval sitting 48 points above the round of 8 cut line, while Wallace is set to enter sitting 26 points below. Live coverage of the Bank of America Roval 400 is set to be shown live on USA Network beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 5. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!